Lily Evans Year One
by peanuts107
Summary: Lily thought that she was just an ordinary girl that was until one morning a very strange letter arrives.
1. The Hogwarts hoax

**Disclaimer: -** Harry Potter and all related characters, items, and magical spells belong totally and fully to the fantastic JKRowling. This fic is purely made for my personal pleasure and is not meant to offend, ridicule or reduce the wonderful works of Ms Rowling whatsoever.

Ok with that out of the way enjoy!

* * *

**Lily Evans Year One**

"Lily come quick the most extraordinary letter has come for you" called Lily Evans' father from down stairs,

_'A Letter'_ thought Lily barely awake _'but who would want to send me a letter?'_ everyone that Lily knew lived only a few minutes walk away, and the only friend that had gone on holiday was Jessie Pike and she'd only went with her family to Brighton, and if Jessie was going to write to her she would have sent a Postcard not a letter,

_'That was probably it' _ Lily thought getting out of bed and pulling her slippers on, her dad had probably meant to say a Postcard not a letter.

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes Lily made her way down stairs and into the kitchen the delicious smells of her mother's cooking wafting into the hall.

Petunia, lily's elder sister was already sitting at the kitchen table immaculately dressed in her neat and pressed floral dress, the family was planning a quick excursion to London today to buy new uniforms for the girls, Lily was going to be starting St Periwinkles comprehensive school this year and Petunia who was five years older then Lily needed new shoes.

"Well open it" Mr Evens said before Lily could even sit down and he handed Lily a yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green ink to Miss Lily Evens, 117 kings walk, Surrey, Lily opened the letter and read:

> _**HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY**_
> 
> _Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (order of Merlin, First Class)_
> 
> _ Dear Miss Evens_
> 
> _We are pleased to inform you that you are invited to attend Hogwarts School __of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books __and equipment, Plus information on the school and locations where said books __and equipment can be purchased._
> 
> _The school term begins September 1st._
> 
> _Yours sincerely,_
> 
> _Minerva McGonagall_
> 
> _Deputy headmistress_

Lily couldn't believe what she was reading, Hogwarts a school for Witchcraft and Wizardry Lily had never heard of such a place, it had to be some sort of a joke, like all the junk mail that her parents received each day telling them they'd won a prize or if they'd register for a credit card they'd get a free gift.

"Well, What is it?" Lily's mother asked eagerly has she brought a platter of Bacon and eggs over to the table,

"I -I -well I don't really know" Lily answered truthfully passing the letter over to her mother, Mrs Evens read the letter and looking very confused she passed it over to her husband,

"Well I - I don't know what to say" Mr Evens said after reading the letter "Is there any thing else?"

"Yes" Said Lily looking inside the envelope and pulling out several pieces of paper, the first sheet of paper was the equipment list the letter had mentioned and Lily read out loud so that her parents could hear "Uniform, First-year students will require: Three sets of plain work robes, black, One plain pointed hat, black, One pair of protective gloves dragon hide and One winter cloak, black with silver fastenings"

Below this there was a list of books,

"Each Student should have a copy of each of the following:" Lily continued has Petunia moved around the table to get a better look.

The book list contained eight books with each title becoming more and more ridiculous as Lily read them:

"The standard book of spells (grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk, Magical theory by Adalbert Waffling, History of magic by Bathilda Bagshot, Beginners guide to transfiguration by Emeric Switch, one thousand magical herbs and fungi, magical draughts and potions, Fantastic beasts and where to find them and finally The Dark forces: A guide to self protection."

"Other Equipment" Petunia read out loud over Lily's shoulder, barely containing her laughter "One Wand, One cauldron, a set of glass or crystal phials, a telescope, a beginners potion kit and a set of brass scales"

Mr and Mrs Evens stared at Lily with expression mixed between confusion and bemusement, the last two things that had came with the letter where thin paper booklets one red and the other yellow, the red one was entitled 'A non-magical parents guide to Hogwarts' the yellow booklet had a thick black title saying 'Now that you know, and what should you do now'.

Lily passed the booklets to her farther and re-read her letter

'What did all this mean?' There couldn't be real witches and wizards in the world, they only existed in faire tales with dragons and unicorns and pretty little princess in distress, No it had to be a practical joke, probably sent by Tommy Warbeck. That was the more likely explanation, but then again it was a little to thoughtout to have been sent by an eleven year old. Tommy may be a practical joker but to have written a letter and created such ridiculous books and equipments not to mention the authentic looking booklets, this was no where near Tommy's usual style, he would usually laugh himself silly by just filling a water balloon up, and Tommy was a doer not a planner and this, the letter, the envelope, the equipment list and the booklets must have taken lots of planning.

"Well" said Mr Evens has he finished reading the yellow booklet "There's a map here of a street in London and a pub called the Leaky cauldron it says that we can get all the books and equipment by just asking the bar tender"

"You're not really falling for this are you Daddy?" said Petunia in her high-and- mighty voice, the voice that she always reserved when talking about anything concerning Lily.

"I don't really know, Petunia?" Mr Evens said passing the booklet over to his wife "You've got to admit that it's quite believable, I mean it would really explain a lot wouldn't it, about all the strange things -"

"-Special things" Mrs Evens said correcting her husband,

"All the Special things that Lily's done over the years"

Petunia made a noise like she was sucking in air, although her lips where closed very tightly, everyone at the table was used to this, it was another one of Petunia's quirks that she reserved for the mention of any of Lily's 'Special things'.

"We could always go and see" Mrs Evens said braking the silence that had descended on the family at the mention of Lily's 'Special things' "I mean we are going to London any way...." she left the rest of her sentence unspoken but from the look in Mr Evens' eye Lily could tell he was thinking along the same lines.

"This should be the street!" Mr Evens said a few hours later has he, Mrs Evens, Petunia and Lily walked down a very busy high street in the centre of London, people where hurrying from shop to shop clutching large bags from department stores and record shops, and Lily saw a little girl no older then five pulling on her mother's hand screaming at the top of her lungs because she wasn't bought a Doll,

"I want that Dolly mummy, I want that Dolly" the girl screamed has her mother pull her past the Evens'.

"I don't see any pubs here Daddy" said Petunia needlessly, as she grinned at Lily,

"The map says we're supposed to be standing right outside of it" Mr Evens said consulting the map at the back of 'Now that you know, and what should you do now'.

"I told you it was a joke" Petunia hissed in a quiet voice so that only Lily could hear, and it was true Petunia had been saying, "It's a joke", "Someone's idea of a laugh" and "There's no such thing as witches and wizards" their entire car journey down to London, but some how after getting over the initial shock of the letter Lily couldn't help but feel that it wasn't a joke.

"Are you sure there isn't anything we have to do?" Lily asked pushing Petunia aside so she could look at the booklet in her father's hands.

"Like what say Abracadabra or Open Sesame?" Petunia said crossing her arms and smirking even more at Lily's mounting frustration,

"All it says" Mr Evens said ignoring his eldest daughter "is that you will find the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross road",

"What's that" Petunia said pointing to the very back of the booklet, Looking over her husbands shoulder Mrs Evens had noticed it as well,

"The back two pages of stuck together" she said sighing. Mr Evens flushed

"Whoops" he said to Lily and she couldn't help but giggle, Mr Evens prised the pages apart to reveal:

**_NON-MAGICAL PARENTS/GUARDIANS AND SIBLINGS CODE_**

**_OF SECRECY_**

It was a long contract type form but Lily didn't get to read much of it as her mother and father moved over to the department stores window to read it without being in the way of the moving crowd, Mr and Mrs Evens read and re-read the Code of Secrecy over again and again talking in hushed whispers that lily and Petunia couldn't hear.

"Right, well I think that you're father and I finally get the general idea of it" Mrs Evens finally told Lily, and she glanced at her husband,

"We have to sign this code to say that we'll not talk about anything magical, especially to other families who aren't......" Mr Evens referred to the code in his hand "....blessed magically" his face broke into a smile as he looked at Lily.

"So all we have to do is just sign this" Lily said eyeing the contract doubtfully "And we'll be able to......"

"See the place where we have to go to" Mr Evens said cheerfully as though he was thoroughly enjoying himself,

"How?" Petunia asked, her arms folded and a stern look upon her face.

"Well-Well that's why it's magic dear" Mr Evens said looking a little crestfallen "It wouldn't make them special if everyone knew where it was now wouldn't it?" He smiled again at Lily as Mrs Evens dug into her handbag and found a pen and handed it to her husband. Both Mr and Mrs Evens signed the contract but nothing happened, Petunia gave a gleeful snort and Lily scowled at her,

_'She's just loving this' _Lily thought, everything that Lily had ever done no matter how hard it was or how much effort and time she'd put into it Petunia was always there putting her down and finding ways of ruining it for her. When they where younger they both attended a gymnastics' club on Saturday mornings and Lily was pretty good at it, a lot better then Petunia anyway, Lily had even been entered into the county tournament up against children that where much older then her, but of course Petunia got jealous and the day of the final competition Petunia faked a stomach ache, meaning that Mrs Evens and Lily had to stay at home to look after her as Mr Evens had to be at work, and because of it the gymnastics teacher had thrown Lily out saying that she wasn't committed enough.

But Lily was determined not to let Petunia ruin this for her, that Letter was real and no snide remarks from Petunia was going to dishearten her now, there had to be something that they hadn't done properly. Lily moved closer to her father to look at the contract, but no sooner had she moved her feet then Mr Evens clapped his hand to his forehead,

"Silly me" he said turning to look at Lily and Petunia "Both of you have to sign it as well"

"What!" cried Petunia "I'm not signing that especially if it is.... m-m-magical, you don't know what it could do?"

"Sign it" Lily demanded pushing her father's hands containing the contract and pen forwards, very reluctantly Petunia took the pen and signed, Lily smiled sarcastically at her has she took the pen and placed her own signature below that of her parents and sister.

Both Mrs Evens and Lily gasped and Petunia jumped backwards crashing into her father, the reason for this strange behaviour wasn't at all apparent to the passers-by who Lily saw where giving all the Evens' a wide berth and very strange looks. But to the Evens' their behaviour was extremely appropriate to someone who had just seen what they thought only a few minutes earlier was impossible.

The moment Lily had signed her name on the contract the large department store had suddenly started to move sideways and a very tiny, grubby-looking building had appeared out of thin air, pushing the department store and it's once neighbouring store away to reveal a large solid oak door, small grimy windows and a sign hanging above the door which was a cracked cauldron.

"Good Lord" Lily heard her father curse behind her,

"W-What do we do now" Mrs Evens asked her husband nervously holding Lily's shoulders very tightly.

"Well we came here to find this place didn't we?" Mr Evens said looking at his wife; Lily noticed that even though his voice sounded almost normal his face was slightly pale. Moving forwards Mr Evens reached out and took hold of the handle of the door and pushed it forwards, he entered the pub followed by Lily, Mrs Evens and Petunia.

The Evens' found themselves in a dark shabby room, with mismatched wooden tables and chairs scattered around the floor, there was only a few people in the pub, a group of old ladies sitting at a table by the fire chatted merrily showing each other the green slimy objects in jars that they had bought, two well dressed men in their early thirties sat playing chess while the other occupants stood around talking by the fire. But as soon as the Evens' entered everyone fell silent and turned to stare at them, Lily suddenly felt very self concise has she stood in front of her mother who still hadn't removed her hands from Lily's shoulders as though she was fearful of some evil cackling Hag would try and steal Lily away. Lily couldn't help but smile at this thought and her father must have seen.

"That's the right idea Lily" he said stepping forwards, making Petunia squeak and hide behind her mother. Clearing his voice Mr Evens called "Hello, we're the Evens' we got this letter-"

"Hogwarts?" Asked a toothless old woman, sitting at the bar, all the Evens' nodded in unison "Yer'll want Tom, in the back he is, TOM" she yelled the last word and a bald old man came out of a side door he looked at the old women and she nodded her head to indicate Lily, her parents and Petunia,

"Sorry" Tom said "Didn't hear you come in, what can I get you?, Buterbeer?" he added looking at Petunia and Lily.

"Er- well no- we're here because of a letter we got" Mr Evens said nervously

"From Hogwarts?" Tom asked, Mr Evens nodded,

"Which one of you is it then?" Tom asked looking from Petunia to Lily, nervously Lily managed to mutter that it was her who the letter had come for, Tom seemed to be overjoyed at the idea, telling Mr and Mrs Evens that they must be really proud,

"I guess that you're Muggles" Tom continued as he lead them over to the bar "there's not many others that use the front door, We've had three other families in today already, Professor Dumbledore's letting more and more in nowadays. First in the family are you little miss?"

Lily nodded her head full to bursting, not really knowing what Tom had said, she was still wondering what a 'Muggle' was when Tom handed her an envelope which contained three things a list of the different shops they could go to to buy Lily's school things, a set of instruction of things they had to do and finally a ticket for a train called the Hogwarts express.

"You'll be needing to a wand," Tom said "Ollivander's is at the end of the street, but before that you'll have to get your money changed so you'll be needing Gringotts for that, then I guess the little miss'll need robes so-" They spent over half an hour with Tom talking them through all the different things they would have to do, even though it had been written down in the list of instruction that Lily had been given in the envelope. Lily didn't want to hear him going on about how they should use such and such a shop because it was having a sale today; Lily wanted to get going and to explore the wizarding world and then it suddenly dawned on her, where was the wizarding world. Was it just several shops dotted around London or did they have a special Market place where she could go to get her new school things? Lily doubted very much that Waterstones sold any of the books on her booklist, but she wasn't left long wondering this when Tom led then through a door and outside to a small court yard where he tapped the opposite wall three times with what looked to Lily to be a smooth wooden stick, the brick quivered and then in the middle of it a small hole appeared which grew bigger and bigger until it formed an archway big enough for all the Evens' to walk through,

"Welcome to Diagon Alley" Tom said cheerfully, Lily was amazed, beyond the archway was an entire street full of people busily doing their shopping, the only thing that made them look different from the people from the non-magical street was their clothes, each of the people in Diagon Alley where dressed in strange old fashioned garments that wouldn't have looked out of place in a BBC Victorian drama.

"Gringotts is at the end of the street" Tom said pointing down the street full of people "You can't miss it it's the big white building" he bid the Evens' Goodbye and retreated back into the Pub.

Mr Evens lead his family down the cobbled street heading in the direction that Tom had indicated, Diagon Ally was a huge place, with strange and wonderful shops and building every where, the street was crowed with people of all ages, Lily saw a boy no older then eight pulling at his father's sleeve calling excitedly

"Came and look dad there's a new cleansweep, dad come on" the boy pulled his farther over to a shop window pointing excitedly up at it's display the shop was called Quality Quidditch Supplies and had a very nice looking broomstick propped up in the window.

Further down the street they passed a shop that was completely dark and had hooting sounds coming from inside, Lily's head was swimming with excitement at all the strange new sights, but she didn't have much time to look around has her Father pointed out the biggest building on the street it was white and made of marble: Gringotts bank.

They spent just as much time in Gringotts has they had with Tom the bartender, Lily, Petunia and her parents where shocked to see that the 'people' running the bank weren't people at all they where goblins, but again after getting over this initial shock Lily's parents set about changing some of their money so that they could buy Lily her new school things. After leaving the bank and refereeing to the set of instruction which Lily had been given, they headed back up the street in search of a shop called Flourish and Blotts where they got Lily's books; her robes from madam Malkins and the rest of her equipment from various shops up and down the street. Petunia was just as excited about the different shops they went in as Lily and her parents they stopped for Ice creams at a place called Florean Fortescue's and was greeted by a very cheery man who gave them free chocolate sundaes as a welcome to the wizarding world. After finishing their ice creams Mr Fortescue waved them goodbye and pointed them in the right direction for Ollivander's where Lily could get her last Item on her equipment list: A wand.

Ollivander's was a narrow and shabby little shop filled from floor to ceiling with small boxes, and after measuring Lily's arm and hand length he gave her several different wands to try, some didn't do anything at all when Lily swished them, others coursed the boxes around the shop to jump violently off the shelves making Petunia and Mrs Evens jump, eventually Mr Ollivander gave Lily a light wooden wand telling her,

"Willow, 10 and a quarter inches, unicorn hair. This could well be the one" And it was has soon has Lily grasped the wand in her hand red and gold ribbons shot out of the wands tip.

"Well done" Cried Mr Evens clapping,

They paid for Lily's wand and headed out of Diagon Ally and back home, Petunia's new uniform and shoes completely forgotten.


	2. On the Hogwarts Express

**Chapter Two: -** On the Hogwarts Express

Lily spent the rest of the summer in constant anticipation for the start of her new term. Her parents had also made several more trips to London namely to buy all the things that they had forgotten to buy for petunia and even though Lily pleaded with them they didn't return back to Diagon Ally, so Lily consoled herself by reading all of her new books. The magical contract that she had signed meant that she wasn't allowed to use magic outside of the school term and even though she was extremely tempted she didn't want to be expelled before she had even started.

Finally September 1st arrived Lily had packed her trunk the night before and was the first to wake in the Evens house, she washed and changed into jeans and a jumper and headed into her parents bedroom to wake them up. Mr Evens complained loudly with a long sting of curses, it was only five o'clock in the morning but has they had to drive up to kings cross he and Mrs Evens both agreed they'd better get up. By seven clock all the Evens' were packed and ready to leave. Mrs Evens had made the girls Sandwiches and was making sure that Petunia had every

thing she needed for her first day back at St Periwinkles, while Mr Evens loaded Lily's trunk into the boot of the car.

Waving goodbye to Petunia has they dropped her off at a friends house the Evens' set off to London.

It was half past ten when they arrived at kings cross station, Mr Evens unloaded Lily's trunk from the car and found a trolley for it, while Lily checked the instructions that she had been given at the leaky cauldron, it told Lily that the Platform from which the Hogwarts Express would leave from was numbered nine and three-quarters. To anyone else this would have seemed extremely strange but after a month of reading the most strangest books she had ever seen in her entire life the number of the platform seemed quite normal.

Following the instructions the Evens' headed down the platforms, Mr Evens pushing the trolley with lily's trunk,

"Are you sure that's what it says?" Mrs Evens asked sounding extremely concerned when Lily had told her how they had to get on the platform,

"Yes" Lily told her mother for the third time "we have to walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten", Mr Evens seemed to think it was a wonderful idea, but Lily's mother wasn't entirely convinced.

They reached the barrier with fifteen minuets to spear (The instructions was adamant that the train would leave at exactly eleven o'clock) After taking a deep breath all three Evens' leaned against the wall and sank right through it to find themselves standing on the platform with a beautiful scarlet steam train waiting at the platforms edge. The platform itself was packed with people and a sign overhead read Hogwarts Express 11 o'clock: they had done it!

Lily was overjoyed and by the looks on her parent's faces she wasn't the only one, Mr Evens led them off into the crowd to find a compartment.

"There's more and more Mudbloods every year!" Lily heard a stern looking woman say, has she and her parents made their way down the platform. Lily didn't really know what a Mudblood was but what ever it was it didn't sound like a very nice term to use.

"This one 'ill do" Lily heard her father say has he stopped outside an empty compartment and after safely storing Lily's trunk in the luggage rack, he climbed back down onto the platform to kiss his Daughter goodbye,

"Me and your Mother are really going to miss you -"

"-And you have to promise that you'll write to us everyday" Mrs Evens said cutting across her husband and hugging her daughter so tightly that Lily thought she'd never be able to breath again,

"I will mum; I promise!" Lily said after she regained her breath, and then from the engine end of the platform a whistle blew and they heard the Guards Calling "All aboard".

Lily's parents beamed down at her their faces looked so happy and proud and so Lily forced a smile onto her face, she felt so nervous now, she hadn't so much has spent a week away from her family before and what if she didn't make any new friends and what if she wasn't any good at magic and it turned out that the letter had meant to go to another Lily Evens who did know magic?

Some of her thoughts must have been showing on her face because has her father helped her up into the trains compartment he leaned in close and whispered into her ear.

"Don't you go worrying now, you'll fit in just right, I bet there'll be lots of new 'ns starting and they'll all be in the same boat too" he kissed her on the cheek again and closed the compartments door. But Lily wasn't so sure her father was right, has she leaned out of the window to wave her parents goodbye she could hear the stern woman talking again,

"Now you two take good care of my little girl" Lily heard her say and turning her head to look at her Lily could see she was talking to two boys, one looked to be in his late teens, he was tall and thin with shoulder length black hair, the other was slightly shorter and stockier and looked to be in his mid teens, he too had dark hair but it was cut shorter at the back and sides and the front hung slightly in his eyes.

"I want you to sit with your brothers" the woman continued has she rounded on a girl who was no older then Lily herself. Lily couldn't see much of the girl has her back was facing Lily but she had the same jet black hair has her brothers which was tied in pigtails and she was already wearing her school robes.

"Oh mum I don't want to sit with them-" the girl said indicating her brothers, "I need to make other friends you know"

"And so you shall my precious," said the man standing next to the stern woman, he looked exactly like an older version of the eldest son, Tall, thin with long sleek black hair and immaculately dressed, but unlike his son he was sporting a goatee, he patted his daughter on the head and looked around at the other students boarding the train

"Look there's the Snapes', Severus is starting this year and so is little Walden Macnair and I think one of the Black girls is, see you'll know lots of people"

The girl sighed loudly and climbed into her compartment looking thoroughly annoyed, followed by her two older brothers who were grinning with amusement.

Lily wished she now hadn't listened to the family's conversation she felt even worse now, obviously that girl wasn't going to have trouble making friends, by the sounds of it her family had been through this a lot of times before and so knew lots of other students and their families.

"Don't Worry" Lily heard her father calling again as the guards walked up the platform closing the compartment doors "You'll be fine!"

"We Love you Lily" Lily hared her mother call has the train slowly pulled out of the station, Lily watched her parents waving until the train went round a bend and they where blocked from view.

Sighing and feeling now utterly lonely and nervous and slightly depressed Lily sank down into one of the padded seats, '

'_Now what?_' she thought after a little while of looking out of the window at the fleeting scenery. She could hear loud snippets of excited conversations from the other compartments, from friends meeting up for the first time after the holidays telling each other what they had done and where they had been, while other more boisterous students chased each other up and down the corridor shouting and calling to each other gleefully.

Lily decided to re-read some of her school text books so that it was all fresh in her mind when she arrived at school and so by climbing up onto her seat she could just reach her trunk, putting the horrid thought of how she was going to be able to get it down from the luggage rack when the train came to a stop to the back of her mind she pulled out her charms book and found her wand.

"Hi" Said a voice from the corridor which startled Lily and she slipped backwards off the seat and fell to the floor still holding her book and wand.

"Sorry I didn't mean to startle you" said the voice again; it was the girl from the platform who Lily had seen with her brothers, stern looking mother and immaculately dressed father. Up close she was a very pretty looking girl with blue eyes. Crossing the compartment the girl helped Lily onto her feet.

"Sorry" she said again "It's a little formal I know but my name's Miriam, Miriam Artemis" she said offering Lily her hand.

"Oh hi" Lily said a little nervously but slightly glad that someone had decided to come to speak to her "I'm Lily Evens" they shook hands and grinned at each other.

"Evens" Miriam said frowning "never heard of you, so that must mean your Muggle born"

"Muggle Born" repeated Lily, she had heard several people over the past month refer to her and her family as 'Muggles' and again she didn't really like the sound of it, mostly because she didn't know the meaning of the term.

"You know non-magical parents" continued Miriam. Feeling slightly relived now that she knew what a Muggle was, Lily sat down again

"Yes I guess I am M-Muggle born".

"Cool" Miriam said has she flung herself down on the seat opposite, "I've never met anyone who was Muggle born before" She said smiling

"Most of the students on this train I know already, I'm related to half of them as well!"

"Oh" was all that Lily could find to say she felt even lonelier and miserable now, and again some of what she was feeling must have shown on her face because Miriam smiled at her,

"Don't worry about it, you'll be fine, we're all at the same level magically anyway, and if anyone does know more spells then normal they wouldn't have had a chance to have practiced them".

They spent the next couple of minuets talking about their families and Miriam was just as fascinated about Lily's family as much as Lily was about Miriam's. It turned out that Miriam was from a very ancient wizarding family that dated back to the middle ages and beyond, this made Lily even more nervous because it meant that Miriam was bound to know a lot of magic even if she hadn't been able to have used it.

"Have you given any thought to which house you think you'll be in?" Miriam said has she returned to the compartment after buying lots of sweets from a merry old witch pushing a food trolley,

"Houses?" Lily didn't know anything about any houses but Miriam continued anyway

"Both my brothers are in Slytherin house, in fact all my families been in Slytherin for centuries" she said gloomily passing Lily a hand full of strange sweets that Lily had never seen before. "I hope I'm in Hufflepuff, that'll shock my folks they'd probably die of shame, or disown me, but at least then dad would notice me!"

"I'm kind of surplus to requirements" she added because of the shocked look on Lily's face, "I can't pass on the family name you see, because I'm a girl. Jed he's my older brother he's the athletic one, made the house team in his second year, plays Chaser, I've been helping him for years to train by belting Bludgers at him. Whereas Tad, he's our eldest brother, he's the intelligent one. He's sitting seventeen NEWTS this year, ministry's given him a time turner so he can get to all his lessons, model student you see, was a prefect now he's head boy, apple of mum's eye.

"So I came to the decision ages ago that if I couldn't please them and get noticed by being good - because it's all been done before- then I'll get noticed by being good at being bad, and the first step of my new regime starts at Hogwarts, so I have to get into Hufflepuff it's my only way of braking free you see!?"

Lily was stunned, there was too much that Lily didn't understand from what Miriam had just said Chaser, Bludger, NEWTS, Time Turner, and even the words Hufflepuff and Slytherin where strange, and what was Miriam so eager of braking free from?

"I'm not insane, if that's what you're thinking" Miriam said smiling,

"Oh Sorry" Lily had just realised that she was staring at Miriam with her mouth slightly open.

"You've got a lot to learn about our world, more then just spells and wand waving let me explain-" and so Miriam told Lily all about the different Hogwarts houses, There was four in total Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, each founded by a different person over a thousand years ago.

She also explained about her favourite sport which sounded extremely strange to Lily, it was called Quidditch and was played on broomsticks ("It's a shame first years aren't aloud to have broomsticks, I've got a really cool one" Miriam said in a misty voice "League standard as well") Quidditch, Miriam explained was a game played by seven team members the main task was for the three players called 'Chasers' to get a big red ball called the 'Quaffle' through one of the three gaol hoops at the end of the pitch which was guarded by a Keeper, while two other players named 'Beaters' used bats to keep two smaller balls named 'Bludgers' away from the Chasers and the final team member which was called a 'Seeker', who's job it was to catch an extremely small ball called the 'Golden Snitch' which zoomed around the pitch and if caught finished the game giving the Seekers team an additional 150 points.

It was obvious to Lily that apart from wanting to annoy her parents Quidditch was Miriam's favourite thing, she talked for over an hour about the team which she and her Brother, Jed, both supported it was called the Wimbourne Wasps. ("Jed's hoping to get a job as a Chaser with the Wasps when he's finished school, he's got along way to go yet though he's only in his fourth year")

It felt nice sitting there with Miriam talking to her has they sped across the countryside, Lily's book and wand laid forgotten on the seat next to her has the time passed her nervousness was also forgotten.

Several other students popped their heads around the compartment doorway throughout the day, mostly to say hi to Miriam, each time Miriam would always introduce Lily to them. Some on seeing Lily would scowl and disappear immediately, one boy who Miriam introduced as Severus Snape did this, he looked at Lily like she was an extremely slimy slug, he didn't even bother to enter the compartment but said he was going to talk to Miriam's brothers and that Miriam should also go and sit with them. But all Miriam did was smile and say she was happy where she was, so the boy slinked off.

After that an other first year girl came into the compartment called Alice she was a really friendly cubby girl with dark short bobbed hair and a round friendly face, she and Miriam obviously already knew each other and she spent the best part of the afternoon in the compartment with them until her twin brother and his new friend came into the compartment laughing and saying that they'd accidentally set fire to Alice's school hat with the deck of cards they where playing with, Alice followed the boys out of the cabin mumbling something about Owling their mother.

"You'd better change into your robes" Miriam said abruptly has she looked out of the compartments window at the now dark scenery "We'll be arriving soon, I'd better head back to my brothers I only told them I was nipping to the toilet, I'll be back soon" Miriam assured her and after sliding the compartment door closed behind her she headed down the corridor.

Lily climbed back onto her seat and reached inside her trunk in search of her robes when the compartment door slid open again,

"That was quick" Lily said turning her head expecting to see Miriam, but it wasn't Miriam who was standing in the doorway, it was a girl Lily had never seen before, she had long black hair and heavily lidded eyes and she was looking at Lily with the utmost disgust on her face, like Lily was something horrible on the bottom of her shoe.

"So there's more of you this year are there?" the girl said walking into the compartment, Lily was frozen to the seat where she stood, she didn't like this girl, she was kind of creepy and a shiver ran down Lily's spin.

"Scared?" the girl said her lips twisting into a cruel smile, she eyed Lily's wand and charms book which was on the seat next to where Lily stood still unable to move even as the girl picked Lily's wand up,

"You should be scared Mu-"

"Hi ya-" said the voice of Alice has she popped her head around the door again cutting the dark haired girl off in mid sentence, some how the sight of Alice made a wave of relief flooded over Lily and her legs remember that they could move, and she jumped down from the seat, the heavily lidded girl threw Lily's wand back down and stormed out of the compartment banging into Alice on her way out.

"What was that all about?" Alice asked rubbing her arm

"I wish I knew" lily said earnestly picking her wand and book up "Who was she any way?"

"That was Bellatrix Black. Unfortunately she's a first year as well" Alice said looking gloomy "knowing my luck I'll probably end up in the same house as her!"

"You and me both" Lily laughed trying to make light of the situation but has she climbed back up onto her seat stuffing her wand and book back into her trunk and removing her robes she couldn't help but feel that Bellatrix Black was somebody that she should try to avoid.


	3. The Sorting

**Chapter 2: -** The Sorting  
  
Alice, stayed in the compartment has Lily pulled on her robes and the train slowed down and pulled into a small dark station, The compartment's door suddenly slid open again and for a split second Lily had the horrible thought that Bellatrix Black was back again, but much to Lily's relief it was Miriam who came striding into the compartment,

"Boy was Tad mad!" Miriam informed them with a smile on her face, "He says he's going to write to Mother to tell her that I'd disobeyed her by- What's wrong?" she asked abruptly looking at Lily full of concern, Lily guessed that she still hadn't got over the creepy feeling that Bellatrix Black had left with her and the shock of thinking that she'd come back must have been showing on her face, it certainly was on Alice's, her face was slightly paler then normal so Lily had to assume that she didn't look any better,

"Nothings wrong" Lily lied "I'm just nervous, that's all!" Why she was lying to Miriam Lily didn't know, she just knew that she didn't want Miriam to think any less of her because she was creped out by a strange girl, But it was more then just that, why had Bellatrix came into the compartment in the first place? What was she going to say before Alice had appeared? What would she have done if Alice hadn't come back?

Thankfully Lily wasn't left to pondered these horrible thoughts, Miriam was already shunting them both out of the compartment before Lily had even realised,

"What about my trunk?" Lily asked quite alarmed,

"Don't worry about it," Alice assured her "My mother told me that elves take them up to the castle for us"

"Really!" said Miriam sounding quite surprised "Jed told me trained mountain trolls do it!!!" Alice laughed, but Lily didn't have the faintest idea why this was amusing. They emerged out of the train onto the Platform where all the other students where now gathering, the older students where heading off out of huge cast iron gates but before Lily, Alice and Miriam could think what they should do they heard a booming voice call,

"Firs'-years!, Firs'-years over here!" it was a giant of a man, the hugest person Lily had ever seen in her entire life he was about as tall as two normal men and the width of five, he had black matted beard and hair and the sight of him was quite alarming, but looking up Lily could see that beneath all that hair he was smiling a kind smile and his black beetle eyes gleamed as the light from his lantern that he was holding hit them.

"I'm guessing that's Hagrid" Alice whispered as they headed over to the man "my dad's told me all about him, he's the gamekeeper at Hogwarts, but don't let his size full you, he's supposed to be the nicest person you could ever meet!"

Lily noticed that Miriam however didn't seem to want to take any chances and she moved to the other side of the small group, unfortunately Miriam wasn't the only one, may of the first years that had followed Hagrid's calls were keeping their distance from him even though many of the older students was calling Hagrid and waving joyfully at him,

"Alright there Amanda" Hagrid called over the sea of heads has an older girl in her mid teens with curly brown hair shouted him,

"I've been made prefect" Amanda called back happily pointing to the small badge on her chest,

"Always knew you would" Hagrid shouted back smiling even more; Lily couldn't help but like Hagrid, he reminded her a lot of her father, except that Lily's dad wasn't quite so big and hairy.

"Come on" He called "Follow me!" the first years followed Hagrid down a steep narrow path, with thick trees on either side making it very dark,

"Yeh'll get yer first look at Hogwarts in a sec" Hagrid called, and has the trees narrowed Lily saw it: In the distance across a dark black ice-like lake, perched on top of a mountain was the most enormous castle, little pinpricks of light where shining from it's many window like hundreds of stars

"Wow" Lily whispered breathlessly if only her parents could see this she thought, Miriam and Alice both smiled at her and they all continued to follow Hagrid down to the edge of the lake where lots of little boats waited.

"We're using boats?" Miriam said looking at them disappointedly "Jed told me we'd be flying to the school on Dragons!!!"

"No more'n four to a boat" Hagrid called, "I said no more'n four" Hagrid said this last part to Alice's twin brother and his friend who where trying to climb into a boat that already had four other boys in it, Lily watched them scurry off to the next boat that only had two boys in, Alice's brother and his friend jumped into the boat just before another boy could climb in and they blew the boy a very loud raspberry and laughed to each other, Lily noticed that the boy who they had stopped from getting into the boat was the pallid, thin, greasy haired boy who Miriam had introduced to her as Severus Snape, glaring at them Severus moved along to the next boat. Lily followed Alice and Miriam into the nearest empty boat and they sat down wrapping their robes tightly around them,

"I wish I put my cloak on" Alice said her teeth chattering,

"Or even some gloves" Miriam said rubbing her hands together "My hands are like blocks of ice", Lily didn't care about the cold she was really getting nervous now and they'd only just got off the train, she was dreading going up to the school and what ever they'd have to do to be put into their houses and weather she'd be in the same house as Miriam and Alice, but all thoughts of houses where suddenly pushed from her head has she saw Bellatrix Black walking down the bank heading directly for their boat with a malicious smile twisting her face.

Lily's her stomach gave a horrid squirm, "Please no" Lily hissed to herself "not her"

"Hay!" Miriam shouted "There's room for one more in here!"

'_What was she doing!?!_' Lily's brain screamed but much to Lily's relief they where joined in their boat by a very cutie looking boy with dark brown hair and matching eyes

"Hi" he said looking from one girl to the other, "I'm David Darcy" he said slightly shivering "It's bloody cold isn't it?" they all laughed and agreed, Lily breathed a sigh of relief has she turned to see Bellatrix head off to join Severus. Hagrid made sure that all the first years where safely in the boats before he climbed into the reaming one, he was so large that he had an entire boat to himself,

"Forwards" Hagrid called and there was a sudden jolt which made Lily scream, the boats where moving of their own accord, she felt so silly now as Miriam and Alice laughed at her, but at least Lily wasn't the only one, David looked a little shocked to see the boat moving and a few more girls up and down the river bank let out screams and gasps as well. The boats glided across the moonlight lake and if Alice, Miriam and David had thought it was cold on the river bank it was nothing compared to the lake itself they where all freezing in the open boats has they reached the middle of the dark lake and the boats floated across its dark depths. Looking around at the other students in the other boats Lily could see Alice's brother and his new friend splashing water at each other and rocking their boat from side to side,

"I hope he falls in and drowns" Alice said bitterly looking at him as well, but Lily was more concerned about the other two boys in the boat one of them didn't seem too bothered about the antics of his new companions he even joined in by splashing water at them, but the fourth boy looked as though he was going to be sick, Lily wished that Alice's brother and friend would stop messing around purely for the sake of this poor sea sick boy because even though it was dark and the boys sandy brown hair hung down around his face Lily could see that the boy looked extremely pale.

The boats continued across the lake and into a darkened tunnel, Lily heard a few of the girls in neighbouring boats gasped has the moonlight was suddenly blocked and they where all cast into darkness, finally still shivering the boats came to a rest in an underground harbour,

"Come on" called Hagrid as he lead the first years up a set of long stone stairs towards a huge set of oak doors, standing in front of which was a tall, dark haired witch wearing emerald robes, with a stern enough face to rival that of Miriam's mother Lily thought.

"My name is Professor McGonagall" she said looking at them all "Please follow me"

The first years left Hagrid and followed Professor McGonagall through the doors, inside Lily gasped, the entrance hall was huge and flaming torches lit it from either side of the walls, a magnificent marble staircase stood at one side of the entrance hall and several small oak doors where scattered around the walls, even Alice and Miriam where staring around at the different sights and in someway this made Lily feel a little less nervous.

"In just a little while you shall be sorted into your houses" McGonagall said has they all stood in the centre of the entrance hall, "The sorting ceremony is a very important part of life at Hogwarts, while you are here your house will be your family your good behaviour will be rewarded in the form of house points which will be recorded in your house's hourglass"

McGonagall pointed to the front doors and turning Lily saw four enormous hourglasses each with a name of a house above it, as they spoke a few grains of what looked like emeralds fell into the lower bulb of the one named Slytherin while on the other side of the four hourglasses a few red grains flew up into the top bulb of the one for Gryffindor.

"Has you have just seen" McGonagall continued her lips narrowing "any rule breaking and house points will be deducted from your house, at the end of the year the points are accumulated and the house with most points is awarded the house cup, this is a very great honour and I hope that you will all be a credit to which house you becomes your, Please wait here, I shall see if they are ready" with this professor McGonagall turned on her heels and disappeared off into the shadows,

"More like she's gone to see who's lost her house some points already" Miriam hissed in Lily's ear "Tad told me old McGon's head of Gryffindor house" Lily forced a laugh, she was getting really nervous now,

"H-How do they sort us into houses?" Lily asked hoping that it wasn't going to be a test

"Mum and dad wouldn't tell me" Alice said at her side "But they did say that finding out which house you'll be in is the whole point of coming to Hogwarts, I just hope I'm not in Slytherin!"

"Jed told me that they use a bewitched hat" Miriam said keeping her voice low has McGonagall returned "But I'm starting to think Jed's been lying to me"

Professor McGonagall beckoned them all to follow her and she led them past the marble stairs into the shadows, out of the darkness another set of huge oak doors loomed into view, As McGonagall approached them they opened and she continued to lead them into a vast room with four long tables all the older students where already sitting at the tables and they followed the first years procession as McGonagall continued to lead them up the centre of the great hall.

Looking past David Darcy Lily could see another table at the top of the hall and by the looks of it that was the teachers table, at the very centre of which sat a very old looking man with long silvery hair and beard. Professor McGonagall directed the first years to line up at the font of the teachers table facing the older students.

"When I call out your name" She said pulling out a long roll of parchment from the inside of her robes "You will sit upon this stool and place the sorting hat on your head" now that the first years had lined up Lily had only just noticed the stool with a very battered looking hat perched on top of it. Lily quickly looked at Miriam who shot her a quick smile, Jed had at least told the truth about something,

"Artemis, Miriam" McGonagall called

"Good luck" Lily whispered,

"Thanks, you too" Miriam whispered back and Lily could have sworn that has Miriam walked up to the hat she had mumbled

"Hufflepuff here I come!" But it wasn't Hufflepuff that the hat shouted in fact it took a very long time for the hat to say anything, Looking around the hall Lily could see Miriam's older brothers sitting on the far table both with looks of concern on their faces, a low buzz could be heard as many of the students in the hall turned to talk to their neighbours staring at Miriam, but Lily could see that Miriam wasn't at all bothered by this, in fact it almost looked as if Miriam was listening to someone whispering in her ear.

"**GRFFINDOR!!!**" the hat exclaimed after what felt like an age and Professor McGonagall pointed Miriam over to the table on the other side of the hall which had erupted into cheers and where Miriam was greeted by the curly haired Amanda. Looking back at Miriam's brothers Lily could see them talking very angrily amongst themselves; obviously they didn't share Miriam's thoughts on not wanting to be in Slytherin. After the long time that it took to sort Miriam the rest of the first years moved much more quickly,

"Ashborn, Katie",

"**RAVENCLAW!**",

"Avery, Morton",

"**SLYTHERIN!**",

"Biggs, Janis",

"**RAVENCLAW!**",

Lily's nerves grew even more as Black, Bellatrix was sorted into Slytherin the E's where creeping ever nearer,

"Black, Sirius" called McGonagall; it was Alice's brothers friend,

"He's Bellatrix's cousin" Alice whispered in Lily's ear,

"**GRYFFINDOR**" the hat exclaimed and Sirius was the second student to join the Gryffindor table, where again Amanda jumped to her feet and welcomed him, Miriam however Lily noticed didn't, and Sirius didn't seem at all bothered by it.

"Brown, Amy" was also proclaimed a Gryffindor, Amanda jumped to her feet once more to welcome the new house mate and Amy sat next to Sirius and Miriam both of whom welcomed her, but again ignored each other.

"Catchlove, Greta", was the first student to be declared an "**HUFFLEPUFF**" the table opposite the Gryffindors burst into applause and shouts of joy as Greta made her way over to them, no sooner had they sat down then Darcy, David joined them, his announcement of being made a Hufflepuff wasn't heard over the excited yells for Greta.

Lily was really nervous now her stomach felt like it was turning it's self inside out what if she wasn't sorted into the right house? What if she was sorted into Slytherin with Bellatrix Black? What if it turned out that she had been given her letter by mistake and the hat just shouted "GO HOME MUGGLE!!!"? What if....

"Lily go on" it was Alice and she was pushing Lily in the square of her back, Lily had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she had completely missed the sorting of Dolohov, Antonin into Slytherin and didn't even hear McGonagall call, "Evens, Lily"

"Go on it's your turn" Alice said again pushing her forwards,

"Come along Miss Evens" professor McGonagall said holding the sorting hat out to her, flushing as red as her hair Lily took the hat as a few sniggers from the Slytherin table reached her ears. Lily crammed the hat on her head and sat on the stool, the hat was massive and fell almost over her eyes,

"Well" said a small voice in her ear which startled Lily and she almost jumped off the stool, "Mmmm, let me see where shall I put you?....."

'_Any where but Slytherin_' Lily thought, '_Any where but Slytherin_',

"So you're another one that doesn't want to go to Slytherin ay?"

'_Let me be with Miriam_' Lily thought trying to ignore the voice in her ear '_please let me go with Miriam_'

"I will tell you what I told young Miss Artemis," the hat continued "you are not the one who gets to decided where you go"

'_But I don't know anyone else besides Miriam and Alice_' Lily told the hat

"But that's not one of the traits of Gryffindor house" The hat told her "Loyal people belong to Hufflepuff" it continued like this for a few moments longer the hat telling Lily the different qualities that it thought she had

"Intelligence yes" It hissed "And your not afraid to stand up for yourself or for your fellows, If I see correctly you've done this on a few occasions already, well maybe.... yes it'll have to be....


	4. A days end

**Chapter 4: -** A days end

"**GRYFFINDOR!!!**" The hat called and Lily jumped from the stool put the hat down on the seat and practically ran to the Gryffindor table where she was immediately hugged by Miriam 

"I hoped you'd be with me" she squealed before Amanda grabbed Lily by the hand and shook it so hard she thought her hand would come lose,

"I'm Amanda Hugh-Genghis, Prefect, welcome to Gryffindor, these are Gryffindors other prefects Richard Goodman, Dorcas Meadows and Gideon Prewett" Amansa said in a rush indicating the girl sitting next to her and the two boys sitting opposite "If you have any problems just ask us",

"Hi" said Amy holding her hand out I'm Amy Brown, Amy was quite a short girl for her age she was black and had really frizzy black hair "It looks like we're going to be dorm mates, I hope we can be friends too?" It was the same thought that was running through Lily's mind, she'd been sorted into Gryffindor and this was to be her house for the next seven years, she didn't really have anything to worry about apart from getting on with the people she'd be spending the next seven years with,

"I'm sure we'll be friends" Lily said smiling and shaking Amy's hand she was greeted by Sirius across the table and was quickly shushed into silence by Amanda

"Shush Your missing the sorting, it's the best part about the start of term feast"

"And there's me thinking it's all about the actual feast" Gideon Muttered to Richard under his breath, By the time Lily had sat down next to Miriam and Amy she had already missed, Forsyth, Victoria become the third person sorted into "**HUFFLEPUFF**" and only just saw Gibson, Elizabeth, Hornby, Thomas and Johnston, Lynne all get sorted into "**RAVENCLAW**", Lily could breathe now and looking around the great hall she was amazed to see how many people where actually in room,

"Jones, Vivienne",

"**HUFFLEPUFF**",

The four great tables where packed full of students,

"Ledgerwood, Lewis",

"**HUFFLEPUFF**"

And the tables themselves where covered with golden plates and goblets,

"Lestrange, Rabastan",

"**SLYTHERIN**",

looking up Lily was amazed to see that the ceiling didn't even look like there was a roof there, it looked more like the nights sky, had it had hundreds of candles floating in amongst the dark clouds,

"It's bewitched to look like the sky outside" Miriam shouted above the cheering of the Hufflepuffs as "Little, Geraldine", ran to join them.

"Longbottom, Frank", Lily heard Professor McGonagall call and a thin boy with dark brown hair slipped the hat onto this head and it immediately declared Frank as a "**GRYFFINDOR**", Lily cheered and raised with the rest of the table to greet the new member of Gryffindor,

"Hi" he said to everyone has he sat down next to Sirius looking a little shocked but smiling none the less Amanda knocked Miriam into Lily has she leaned across the table to shake Frank's hand. Amanda hadn't even sat down when the next first year "Lupin, Remus", was also Proclaimed as a Gryffindor, Remus it turned out was the sea sick boy that Lily had seen in Alice's brother's boat, he looked like he still hadn't got over his sea sickness has he made his way over to sit next to Frank and Sirius, but even though he still looked extremely ill it didn't stop Amanda from leaning across the table and shaking his hand even more forcefully then she had done to Frank and recited the same words she had said to Lily. Remus didn't seem to mind and he smiled has he rubbed his shoulder and Miriam, Lily and all the other first years introduced themselves.

"Mackenzie, Dorcas",

"**HUFFLEPUFF**"

"MacNair, Walden" was announced as a "**SLYTHERIN**", before the hat could even touch his head, watching as the Slytherin table erupted in cheers and Gideon and Richard both booed and received very stern looks from Amanda for doing so. Lily saw Walden MacNair walk towards the Slytherin table where he was greeted by Miriam's eldest brother and another boy the same age who had white blond hair.

"O'Neill, Dymphna",

"**GRYFFINDOR**",

The Gryffindors again burst into shouts and cheering and Amanda rushed to the end of the table to greet Dymphna, amongst all the welcoming and cheering the Gryffindors had completely missed the sorting of "Pettigrew, Peter" into "**GRYFFINDOR**", Peter was a podgy boy with mousy brown hair he had walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down before Gideon had pointed him out to Amanda and has Amanda rushed over to him apologising profusely as Gideon and Richard doubled over in silent laughter.

"It's Alice!!!" Miriam said nudging Lily in the side, looking back up at the sorting Lily saw Alice put the battered hat onto her head, "Fingers crossed" Miriam continued has she crossed her fingers on both hands, Lily had to agree she wanted Alice to join them in Gryffindor as well, the hat didn't spend much time on Alice before it shouted "**GRYFFINDOR**",

Lily and Miriam cheered even harder then they had for any of the others first years and Miriam beat Amanda to Alice as she ran over to them,

"I knew it" Miriam squealed "I just knew it" managing to avoided having her arm wrenched off by Amanda Lily, Miriam and Alice sat down at the table has the other first years introduced themselves to their new members,

"James Potter" Professor McGonagall called It was Alice's twin brother he strolled over to the sorting hat as though he did something like this every day and pulled it over his dark hair, his glasses prevented the hat from falling right over his head,

"Watch it" Alice said smiling "He'll end up in with us" and Alice was completely right the Sorting hat had only been on James' head for thirty seconds and it declared him as a "**GRYFFINDOR**".

"Hay sis" James yelled over the roar of the Gryffindors has he strolled over to the table "Who'd have thought we'd have been sorted into the same house!"

"Mum and Dad are going to love it" Alice called back as Amanda ran to greet James with her usual dislocating hand shake and welcome speech. The sorting continued for some time even though no more students where sorted into Gryffindor. Pritchard, Maureen became the sixth student to join Slytherin, Rathbone, Blair and Reed, Ryan where both pronounced to be Revenclaws.

Lily's eyes started to wander around the Great Hall again mostly she looked around at her fellow Gryffindors, Rookwood, Eloise who Miriam informed Lily was her cousin was sorted into Slytherin where she was enthusiastically greeted by both of Miriam's brothers,

"Roberts, Christopher",

"**HUFFLEPUFF**"

"Rosier, Evan",

"**SLYTHERIN**",

Lily's stomach had now started to rumble and by the sounds of it she wasn't the only one who was hungry, both Sirius and James where trying their hardest to silence their own grumbling stomachs.

"Shingleton, Gaspard"

"**RAVENCLAW**"

"Smithson, Robert"

"**HUFFLEPUFF**"

Lily was looking around at the hall again and up at the teachers table when a movement from Miriam caught her eye, Miriam had waved up at the first years that still yet had to be sorted and as McGonagall called "Snape, Severus", Miriam had mouthed the words Good Luck to him. But Lily couldn't help but be glad that Severus was sorted into Slytherin, Miriam however seemed a little disappointed that he hadn't joined them has Severus walked over to the Slytherin table where he was greeted by both of Miriam's brothers and the white blond haired boy, who had only greeted Bellatrix Black before now.

Trapp, John and Thornton, Thomas where both exclaimed as "**Revenclaws**". Thurston, Samuel was greeted with lots of cheering has he was proclaimed as the last "**Hufflepuff**" to be sorted, and finally the sorting ended with Wilkes, Elwood being sorted into "**Slytherin**" the hall filled with a mixture of cheering from the Slytherin table and Boos from most of the Gryffindors manly led by Gideon and Richard, Amanda scowled at them and crossed her arms.

The noise only subsided when the man in the golden chair with sliver hair and beard stood up, he looked around the hall at the new first years beaming at him as though nothing more pleased him then to see them all there,

"That's Professor Dumbledore" Alice whispered when she saw Lily looking at him,

'_So that was Professor Dumbledore Hogwarts Headmaster_' lily thought

"Welcome" Dumbledore said smiling "I know that it's been a very long day and unfortunately the day is not yet over there must be a time for speeches and long statements, but now is not the time Enjoy" he said the last word raising his hands up and the empty goblets and plates filled with food and drink,

"WOW" gasped Lily and thankfully she wasn't the only one even Miriam and Alice seemed shocked to see the food appear out of thin air,

"About time" Richard Goodman said stuffing a chicken leg in his mouth and at the same time grabbing a bowl of Mash potatoes, Amanda sighed something that Lily could have sworn sounded very much like "boys" as she spooned peas and carrots onto her plate, following the older students example the first years began to help themselves to food as well.  
  
"What's that?" Lily asked Miriam after a few minutes pointing to a small wriggly lump in Miriam's pocket,

"Oh I completely forgot!" she said putting her hand in the pocket and pulling out a little striped fury ball "he's been in there all day sleeping" Miriam placed the furry ball onto the table and Lily suddenly realised that it wasn't an '_it_' at all it was a very tiny Kitten, but it had the strangest markings of any cat she had ever seen, sitting on the table Lily could see that underneath it's tabby cat markings it had black flecks and it's ears where much too large for it's head and the kittens tail looked more like a lions then any tabby cats,

"He probably smelt the food" Miriam said giving the Kitten a strip of Chicken "I bet he's really hungry" the Kitten ate the offered food purring loudly

"He's adorable" Amy said looking down the table,

"How did you get one of those?" Dymphna asked "Your supposed to have licences aren't you?"

"Licence?" Lily said voicing her thoughts "but it's only a little Kitten?"

"Well kind of" Miriam said has the kitten sat down in front of her plate waiting for more food "He's a Kneazle, a type of wizard's cat"

"Their really rear" Remus said leaning across the table and giving the kitten some beef, "My Grandmother had one once their fiercely loyal!"

"Fierce this little sweetie" Amy said stroking the Kittens back making him purr even louder "Where did you get him?"

"My grandfather gave him to me yesterday, it's kind of like an Artemis family tradition, we all get a pet when we get into Hogwarts Tad got an Owl and Jed got a Crup so Grandfather gave me MacMikelmouse"

"Mac-what?" Alice asked stroking the kitten on the head,

"MacMikelmouse" Miriam repeated "That's the name he came with but Mac suits him better" The rest of the feast they spent talking about Mac and how cute he was, everyone thought he was such a cool pet and Lily could have sworn that he purred even louder when people said nice things about him, but that was just ridiculous Lily assumed that it was just her ears playing tricks on her, there was after all lots of noise in the great hall.

Tthe main meal eventually was eaten and the scraps where replaced by desert and Mac helped himself to chocolate pudding from Miriam's bowl. When all the deserts where finished Professor Dumbledore stood up and the plates, bowls and goblets emptied

"Now that we are all fed and watered and the weariness of this day is calling you to your beds I unfortunately have to give a few start of term notices, firstly all first years must note that the forest surrounding the castle is expressly forbidden, this is for your own safety and a few of the older students should remember this" Lily heard Amanda giggle and she turned to see Gideon and Richard looking down at the table top, Richard was rubbing a faded scar on his cheek

"Also this years curfews will be rigidly upheld by all members of the staff, this again is for your own safety," Lily noticed that at this Remus had lowered his head too and was now stearing at the empty plate in front of him "any student found out of their common rooms after the stated year times will find themselves with harsh punishments! On a lighter note Quidditch team tryouts will take place on the second week of term and any student wishing to tryout for their house team should contact their team captain,

"Also Mr Flitch has reminded me that several more items have been added to the list of things band from the school a full list I understand can be seen in Mr Flitch's office" Dumbledore smiled "Now to bed!".

Amanda must have been waiting for these very words has she was the first person in the hall to get to her feet

"First years follow me and the other prefects we will show you to Gryffindor tower", and with this she lead the first years out of the hall calling "Out of the way there, Excuse me I'm a prefect, please move".

"Miriam!" called a voice has they reached the entrance hall, turning round Lily saw that the person who had called was one of Miriam's brothers,

"Come on" Miriam said pulling Lily and Alice over to him, pushing past Sirius, Lily saw that it was the younger of Miriam's brothers: Jed

"I'm disappoint in you little sis, not making Slytherin" he said hugging her "But you always had to be different didn't you?" his face broke into a smile and Lily couldn't help but notice that he was very good looking,

"Jedidiah Artemis!" called Amanda's voice from the foot of the stairs "Kindly leave my first years alone"

"I'd best go" he said hugging Miriam again "and don't let bossy Hug-and-Kiss get on your nerves too much" he said this nodding his head towards Amanda and it took Lily a second to work out what he had meant, Amanda's last name was Hugh-Genghis.

"I'll see you in the morning and don't worry about Tad he'll come round, I'll give him no choice!" Jed called has he headed across the entrance hall and was lost in amongst a group of other students.

"Come along" Amanda demanded "We can't wait around all night just for you three". Lily, Miriam and Alice headed back to the group of first years and the prefects led them up the marble stairs.  
  
Finally after what seemed to Lily like she had just climbed Snowdonia the Gryffindor students found themselves heading down a long moonlit corridor at the end of which stood, in a gilded frame a very large painting of a very fat lady in a silk pink dress.

"Behind this picture is the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, through which you will find your dormitories" Amanda said not even the slightest out of breath.

"But to pass the Fat Lady you must first give her the password" Gideon Prewett said in a hushed voice which only the students could hear, and before Lily could fully understand what Gideon had just said they came to a halt in front of the picture.

"Welcome, welcome to all Gryffindor's new first years" the picture boomed

"It can speak!!!" Squeaked Amy Brown hiding herself behind Sirius who grinned obviously amused at Amy's lack of magical knowledge.

"Well of course I can!" the fat lady barked angrily, crossing her arms "how else am I supposed to fore fill my duties otherwise?"

"The password is Commodo aperito" Gideon said stepping forwards out of the group, forcing the Fat lady to swing forwards to reveal the opening behind her and cutting off any dispute that she might have been willing to continue.

"It is against the School rules to give the common room passwords to any student who is not in your house," Amanda said continuing as though a painting that could move and speak was nothing out of the ordinary "The Password will be changed on occasions when the Gryffindor guardian (she indicated the Fat Lady's now open picture) sees fit to do so, all house prefects that is myself, Gideon, Richard Goodman and Dorcas Meadows (Amanda indicated all of the prefects including herself as though she was an air steward showing the locations of the exits) "will be informed of changes prior to the event so anyone who forgets the password needs only to find us or the house head boy or girl to find out what it is".

"What if none of them remember?" Alice said leaning into whisper to Lily and Miriam both of whom sniggered and received a very stern look from Amanda for doing so.

"Am I to stay open all night?!" the fat lady bark again coursing Amy to jump and to bang into Remus Lupin, Lily noticed that he still looked a little sea sick, or it could be that he had eaten too much at the feast. They all climbed though the portrait hole and Lily found herself in a very cosy circular room full of comfy armchairs and tables.

"If all the boys would like to follow me and Richard" Gideon said moving over to a door on his left "we'll show you to your dormitory"

"Girls follow me" Amanda called has she opened the door to the right and started up the spiral stone staircase, casting one last look around at the warm and welcoming common room Lily followed Amanda and Dorcas up the stairs, about half way up Amanda stopped at a door with a wooden plaque saying '_First Years_', pushing the door open Amanda informed them that this would be their dormitory for their remaining years at Hogwarts and that their trunks and pets had already been brought up, the first years all filed into the dormitory as Amanda and Dorcas wished them all a good night and before she closed the door Amanda told them in her very sternest voice that breakfast is served in the great hall at eight fifteen and they were not to be late!  
  
"What a day" Dymphna said flinging herself onto the nearest bed "I mean I know my mum and dad told me all about Hogwarts but nothing they said came anywhere close to describing this place"

"I know what you mean!" Alice said finding her trunk and pulling out her pyjamas, both my parent where in Gryffindor but still it's so amazing just being here"

"I didn't know that paintings in the wizarding world could talk and move" Amy said sitting down on her trunk looking a little down hearted,

"Neither did I" Lily said in what she hoped was an encouraging voice has she sat down next to Amy, slightly glad that at least one of her new friends was Muggle born as well. After choosing their beds the girls all changed into their pyjamas and night dresses, Lily was so tired the excitement of the day combined with her now full stomach was turning into a mixture of exhaustion and light headedness, but if any of her room mates where feeling the same none of them showed it, they where all lying or sitting on their beds talking Lily didn't want to be left out so she forced herself to stay awake listening.

They talked for hours about their families how their parents had reacted when the Hogwarts letter had come, Amy and Lily's stories were the best has none of their parents had ever heard of Hogwarts or the magical world before (Amy's mother had fainted when Amy had first showed her the letter). They then talked about what they had all done over the holidays waiting for September 1st to arrive and what lessons they where all looking forward to, Miriam's of course was flying and she spent an hour arguing with Dymphna over their Quidditch teams. Dymphna supported a team called the Appleby Arrows's which it turned out was rivals to Miriam's team the Wimbourne Wasps but one by one the exhaustion grew even more and they all feel asleep.


	5. Howlers, Owls and Whomping Willows

**Chapter 5: -** Howlers, Owls and Whomping Willows  
  
The next day Lily woke to hear a banging on the their dormitory door,

"Come on, get up its Seven o'clock" Lily recognised the voice that called from out in the hallway, it was Amanda Hugh-Genghis',

"She's a manic" Lily heard Alice groan from the bed on her right

"You've got an hour to get washed, changed into your robes and be in the common room me and Gideon are walking you to breakfast" Amanda called again,

"She's more then a manic" Miriam said pulling her drapes open "She sounds exactly like my bloody room guard" Lily didn't really know what a room guard was but she could easily guess what a room guards job was. By eight o'clock the first year girls where immaculately dressed, washed, teeth brushed and hair combed, Miriam was following Lily's example and decided to have her hair down. They where standing in the common room waiting with Amanda her face was bright red, she had returned back to the girls dormitory to find that Miriam and Amy had both fell asleep again and she wasn't very pleased and gave them all a very long lecture about the qualities of a Gryffindor one of which was supposedly punctuality,

"I've never heard of that described as any of the houses qualities!" Alice had whispered to Lily when Amanda had started on her rant.

"We're gong to be late" Amanda was saying more to herself has she looked at the doorway leading to the boys dormitories, "I told Gideon to have the boys down here for five to eight, he's probably let them all lie in of course!"

"Wish we could have" Lily heard Dymphna grumble from behind her. At ten past eight Gideon and the first year boys came down the stairs from the boys' dormitories and he and Amanda lead the first years down to the great hall with Amanda chastising Gideon on the finer points of her speech about punctuality. The boys looked as tired as the girls felt, James, Sirius and Frank looked half a sleep and little Peter Pettigrew's hair looked like he didn't even know what a comb was for. Remus Lupin was the only boy that looked fully awake and Lily was glad to see that he no longer looked ill. Dymphna groaned has they entered the Great Hall they were the first students there, Amanda lead them up to the very top of the Gryffindor table, and Lily settled herself down next to Miriam and Alice and they all started to help themselves to food, after a few minutes the great hall started to slowly fill with other students.

"Hi" said a voice from behind Lily all the first years turned to look, it was a third year Gryffindor boy with ginger hair and he settled himself down next to Lily leaning low down on the table

"Look I just wanted to introduce myself," he said in a very hushed voice "I'm Fletcher and I wanted to say that if you need any type of...err... Special goods such as Dungbombs or quick quote-"

"DUNG!!!" Amanda called has she spotted the boy "leave the first years alone, their not interested in any thing you've got to offer them!" at Amanda's shout Dung had nearly fell off the bench he scrambled to his feet

"Remember if you need anything, anything at all just ask!" has the first years exchanged confused looks Dung practically ran out of the hall and disappeared up the marble stairs.

Eventually the four huge house tables where all filled with students and the noise in the great hall was steadily increasing as the students discussed what lesson they thought they would have first,

"I hope its flying" Miriam said excitedly looking up at the ceiling which was showing a beautiful clear blue sky "Today's just the perfect weather for it!"

"Personally I hope we've got Transfiguration" Alice said "It sounds really interesting and really useful"

"Yeah I really want to learn how to transfigure you into a Toad" James told her smiling,

"Not before I transfigure you into a Slug!" Alice retorted,

"Yeah well -" James continued but any other argument that he may have been willing to have continued with was suddenly broken off by a Whooshing sound, looking up Lily saw hundreds of Owls flying into the great hall from the barely visible rafters,

"That's the morning post" Miriam told Lily "Oh no!" Lily saw that Miriam's eyes where following a large eagle owl has it swept low over the hall clutched in it's beak was a red envelope which it dropped in front of Miriam and took off.

"Open it quickly!" Peter squeaked ducking under the table, even James, Alice, Dymphna, Sirius, Remus and Frank pushed away from the table, in fact it was only Lily and Amy who hadn't acted strangely to the arrival of the letter.

Miriam sighed and picked the letter up as though she was expecting it to have arrived even though she hadn't mentioned anything about expecting any post.

"Quickly!!!" Peter squeaked again has the envelope started to smoke, sighing again Miriam tore the envelope open and Lily whished she hadn't, a screeching voice sounded from it, Lily recognised it instantly as that of the stern woman that she had seen on platform nine and three-quarters, Miriam's mother, but the voice was magnified ten times and it echoed through the hall,

"**HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE TOLD US!**"

All conversation in the hall immediately stopped and everyone's heads turned to look in the direction of the noise

"**SORTED INTO GRYFFINDOR! **

**I'M ASHAMED TO CALL YOU MY DAUGHTER!!! HOW CAN I EVER LIVE THIS DOWN!!! NOT ONLY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME OR YOU'RE FATHER BUT WE HAD TO HEAR ABOUT IT FROM MRS BLACK!!! I NOTICE BELLATRIX WAS SORTED INTO SLYTHERIN!!! **

**YOU'RE A DISGRACE TO THIS FAMILY YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO CALL YOURSELF AN ARTEMIS!!!**"

Finally finished the letter burst into flames and Miriam dropped it onto the table, the great hall was filled with a dead silence and everyone's eyes where on Miriam, Lily notice that even some of the teachers up at the top table where staring at Miriam and that at the Slytherin table both of Miriam's brothers, Thaddeus and Jedidiah looked slightly unnerved by the menacing voice of their mother. Lily also noticed that Bellatrix Black was smiling very smugly.

"What was that?" Amy asked tentatively,

"An Howler" Remus replied in a low voice has he still looked at Miriam,

"Well I'm glad I'm not in Slytherin, I wouldn't want to have shared a dormitory with Bellatrix Black for all the money in Gringotts" Miriam said looking down at the remains of the still burning Howler, her blue eyes slightly moist.

"And what's so wrong with my cousin?" Sirius asked angrily

"What's right with your cousin more like?"

"My cousin, you can hardly talk just take a look at yours!" he nodded his head to the Slytherin table and the girl sitting next to Bellatrix: Eloise Rookwood,

"Eloise is a Pratt I'll admit it," Miriam said equalling Sirius' anger "she can barely tell the difference from a toad stool and a foot stool but at least she isn't plain evil like Bella", Miriam paused but only to take a breath before she carried on "I heard one summer she once used a full body bind on your little brother and tried to burn him with a magnify glass, apparently he's still got the burns!!!",

Miriam must have struck a nerve, still angry Sirius leaped up from his seat, his hands balled into fists on the table top, Miriam didn't even flinch.

"Sit down Mr Black" It was Professor McGonagall head of Gryffindor house, but still Sirius didn't sit down he was glaring at Miriam as though he'd like nothing more then to curse her with every jinx and curse he knew,

"I said sit down Mr Black," McGonagall said her voice stern, "unless you would like to find yourself in detention on your very first day?" Much to Lily's relief Sirius slowly sat down has Professor McGonagall handed out their timetables, and other students huddled together to discuss what they had all just seen and heard.  
  
If Lily had thought that after the Howler the rest of the day couldn't have got any worse she was very wrong, Miriam although insisting that she was fine was in a foul mood all day, every time they walked through the corridors students would huddle together pointing and sniggering at her. And even though the entire school had been at breakfast that morning by the end of the day Lily had heard several different versions of what the Howler had actually said her favourite was that the howler had come from the Minister of Magic himself and that Miriam had been working as an undercover supporter for dark wizards. But even though Miriam admitted that it was quite amusing her bad mood was worsened by their last lesson of the day: Defence against the dark arts.

For some reason their teacher Professor Vindictus Viridian head of Slytherin house had taken an instant dislike to the Gryffindors.

"You will be quiet" he hissed has he strode towards them as they lined up outside the class, then spotting Miriam he stopped

"Well Miss Artemis" he said the corner of his mouth turning into a malicious smile, "you certainly do like to make an exhibition of yourself don't you?" Miriam just stared at him blankly has though she hadn't even heard him, "Your brothers think a lot of themselves as well, Thaddeus believes he is exceptional at this subject, shall we see if his arrogance runs in the family?" grinning even broader he let the class enter the room.

The lesson was the worst that Lily had ever been too, Professor Viridian made them all sit in alphabetical order which meant that Miriam was sitting next to Sirius, neither one seemed very happy about these arrangements and they both sat as far apart as was possible on the small wooden desks. Alice and James weren't happy about the seating arrangements either because they had to sit with each other. Throughout the entire lesson Viridian picked on both Miriam and Sirius to answer the most complicated questions that he could possibly think of, but fortunately they both knew all the answers and after a while he gave up trying the find anything wrong in the answers that they gave and he turned his attention to the rest of the class sneering at them when they got a question wrong or if they said that they didn't know the answer. After an hour and a half Lily was certainly glad when the bell rang to signal the end of the lesson.

"That was just awful" Amy said as they headed down the corridor towards the Great hall for dinner

"I know!" Dymphna said turning to look at Miriam "He seemed to really hate you and Sirius!" Miriam said nothing as she strode in front of the Gryffindors, leading them to the entrance hall.

"Well at least we didn't get any homework" Lily said has happily has she could, she really liked Miriam but her bad mood was really infectious and it was making the rest of the Gryffindor first years unhappy and depressed. They all sat at the Gryffindor table in silence and helped themselves to food,

"Hungry?" Lily asked James and Sirius has they shovelled mounds of food onto their plates.

"Mo!" James said through a mouthful of chips

"He always eats like that" Alice said eyeing her brother with an expression of repulsion on her face "It's quite disgusting actually!"

"Vots he vont!" James said spraying Alice with bits of half eaten chips has he looked past her, turning around Lily saw Severus Snape walking over to them from the Slytherin table he was holding a peace of parchment, and Lily saw Miriam get to her feet next to her and head over to Severus smiling,

"How does she know him?" James asked accusingly to Alice managing to swallow his food,

"I don't know they just do, so drop it!" she said the last part in an undertone that had a sort of finality about it. Miriam quickly returned back her seat smiling,

"Severus gave me a letter form my Grandfather" she said showing Lily the parchment that Severus had been holding, "Tad and Jed wrote to him last night and he sent this to them this afternoon, he's really pleased that I'm in Gryffindor. I don't know why I let that Howler get to me really; After all I should have really expected it, especially if I had been sorted into Hufflepuff!"

Lily was pleased that Miriam's bad mood seemed to have been lifted and by the looks on everyone else's faces so were they, the only two that didn't seem happy was Sirius and James,

"How do you know that greasy haired creep" James burst out, Lily sighed as Miriam retaliated, her bad mood instantly back

"Severus isn't a creep! And why should it matter how I know him!"

"It matters because his parents are dark wizards" James said angrily, Lily noticed that Miriam's eyes darted across to Sirius and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat

"Really" she said her mouth curling into a smile as evil as Bellatrix's "so because someone's parents might be dark wizards it automatically makes the child one does it?" Alice snorted her face cracking into a smile

"She's got you there little brother"

"Shut up" James hissed has he turned his attention back to his food.

'_All in all_' Lily thought as she stabbed her Chicken leg with her fork '_today has been a really lousy day!_'  
  
After dinner Lily, Miriam and Alice headed up to the schools Owlery, as the others headed back to the common room.

"I promised my mother that I'd write to her" Lily told Miriam and Alice as they headed up the Owlery stairs, it was true that Lily had promised to write to her parents every day but she didn't really know what she would tell them.

"You can use Tad's owl he'll not mind" Miriam said as she pushed the Owlery door open, it was a large circular tower room and the floor was covered with straw, the walls had lots of wooden tiers that rose up to the ceiling and every single tier was covered in a feathery mass of different coloured owls.

"That's Tad's owl up there" Miriam said pointing at a very large dark brown owl on the top tier "he's called Ichabod, grandfather got him from America"

As Miriam and Alice set about trying to persuade Ichabod to come down Lily set about writing her letter,

> _Dear Mum and Dad_ (It sounded a bit formal Lily thought But she didn't know any other way of starting it off)
> 
> _They use owls to send letters in the magical world this one belongs to a friends brother it's called Ichabod, I met the girl (Miriam Artemis) on the train and she's really nice, We've even been put into the same house with another girl that she introduced to me called Alice Potter, Alice is lovely as well and she has a twin brother called James, he's in our house too. The house is called Gryffindor and everyone is really nice especially the other two girls we share a dormitory with, one of them is even Muggle born like me, that means we have none magical parents. The classes are really good I've got lots to learn and tomorrow we've got Transfiguration which means we change things into other things, but Alice says we'll only start by changing matches into pins first._
> 
> _Hope your all are well and give my love to Petunia Lily_

'_That should do_' Lily thought has she folded the parchment up and put her quill and ink bottle back into her bag.

"I've done" Lily called to Miriam and Alice and they walked over to her, Ichabod sitting on Miriam's shoulder, up close he was even bigger then Lily had thought, his amber eyes looked menacing and his huge feet ended in inch long talons that gripped Miriam's shoulder. If he wanted to Lily thought he could probably have carried Miriam away,

"Beautiful isn't he" Alice said stroking Ichabod's tufted head "Miriam says he's a Great Horned Owl, we've only got a screech at home!" Miriam took Lily's letter reading Ichabod the address and tied it to one of his huge taloned feet,

"Your parents are going to get one hell of a shock in the morning when they wake to find him outside their window" Alice said has they stood next to the glassless window and watched Ichabod fly off into the dark night. Lily laughed.

"What's that?" Miriam said pointing across the grounds at a large and ugly willow tree, squinting, Lily could just make out three figures crossing under the willow's branches, two of the figures were much more taller then the third, and as Lily, Miriam and Alice watched, one by one the figures disappeared down into the base of the tree.

"That's weird!" Lily heard Miriam say,

"It's got absolutely nothing to do with us Mi" Lily said moving away from the glassless window "Come on our curfew starts soon we've got to be back in the common room before it starts!" But Lily already knew what Miriam was going to say next,

"No let's wait" she said leaning against the stone window frame "I want to see what's going on" Sighing Lily settled herself next to Miriam and Alice and waited. The grounds gradually began to darken even more and the owls around them started to wake and fly out of the tower for a night of hunting. Finally after what felt like hours two of the three figures reappeared at the base of the willow tree and they headed across the grounds towards the entrance hall, leaning slightly out of the glassless window as the two figures came into the light cast by the open oak front doors Lily, Alice and Miriam could see exactly who they where,

"That's Dumbledore" Alice whispered to the others voicing what they all could see, "And that woman who's with him is Madam Pomfrey the school nurse!"

"I wonder what they've been doing" Miriam said frowning "And what happened to the other person that was out there with them?" Lily looked out of the window again, the tree was standing solitary in the now dark grounds it's branches softly swaying in the breeze

"More to the point" Lily said thinking out loud "who was the third person?"


	6. Bedlam on broomsticks

**Chapter 6: -** Bedlam on broomsticks  
  
Lily was extremely relieved to get back to the Fat lady's corridor without being seen, they were over an hour past the First years curfew. Alice cut short the Fat Lady's chastising of them by giving her the password and forcing her to swing open, they climbed in through the portrait hole and they were all very glad to see that Amanda Hugh-Genghis wasn't in the common room.

"Where have you three been?" Frank Longbottom said coming over to them has they made their way over to the rest of the first years who were sitting watching Peter Pettigrew teach Amy how to play Gobstones "It doesn't take that long to send an Owl!"

"We...Er...We didn't know what to write" Lily lied, she didn't really know why she didn't want to tell the others about what she, Miriam and Alice had seen but for some reason it just didn't feel right,

"It took all three of you over two hours to write one dear mother letter?" Sirius said grinning,

"We had to tie it to the Owl as well" Alice said looking at Sirius as though this was an obvious reason for their long absence "It was a very big owl"

"A big owl?" scoffed James

"It had big feet! Bigger then your head!" Alice said savagely

"We're off to bed!" Miriam announced plucking at Lily and Alice's sleeves

"But it's only eight o'clock" Dymphna called after them as they crossed the common room to the girls dormitories "Amanda says we can stay up at least till half past!!!"

"What is going on with you three?" Frank said grabbing Miriam's arm

"We're just tired Frank that's all" Miriam said pulling her arm away and leading Lily and Alice up to their dormitory.

"Tell me" said Alice as she closed the door behind her "why were we just lying to our friends?"

"I don't know" said Lily and she tried to explain that it didn't seem right to tell everyone that the headmaster was out in the grounds.

"Did you notice" Miriam said sitting down on her bed and stroking Mac "That Remus Lupin wasn't in the common room when we got back"

"Well he probably went for a lie down or something, he was looking a little off colour at dinner" Alice said sitting down next to Miriam

"Mmm.... Maybe" Lily heard Miriam say softly has she continued to stroke Mac who purred loudly. Lily didn't like the look that was slowly creeping across Miriam's face it was one of those deep thoughtful looks, the type Lily's father usually got before he came up with a really harebrained scheme.

"Come on" said Alice getting up "seeing as we're all up here we might has well get some sleep before Amanda comes to wake us up" they all laughed and changed into their pyjama's and night dresses.

"The moon's very bright tonight" Alice said has she pulled the curtains closed "It looks full, maybe Dumbledore and Pomfrey was out in the forest talking to Werewolves and vampires!" Lily and Alice both laughed but Miriam looked as though she was still thinking about what they had seen from the Owlery window. Sighing Lily climbed into bed and pulled her drapes closed around her four poster bed "Good night!" she called

"Night, Night Lily" Alice called sleepily from her right,

"What! Oh night!" Miriam said absently.

"Where were you last night?" Miriam ask Remus Lupin as the they all sat down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast the next day, 

"Yeah that's what we'd like to know as well" Frank said sitting down next to Remus with James, Sirius and Peter in tow "You didn't sleep in your bed last night!"

"Oh...er...No i...err... i didn't feel too well and madam Pomfrey decided that I should spend the night in the hospital wing – You know so she could keep an eye on me" Lily and Alice both exchanged the same curious look, but it was Miriam who voiced what they were thinking,

"Did madam Pomfrey stay _all _night in the hospital wing with you Remy?"

"Yes" Remus said looking down at his bowl of porridge "Why?"

"No reason" Miriam said idly reseaving a very inquisitive look from both Remus and Frank,  
  
After breakfast they all headed out of the hall and into the grounds, today was the day they were going to have their first flying lesson. Out on the grounds Lily could see another class waiting for them and instantly Lily recognised Bellatrix Black standing within the other groups midst.

"No one said we have flying with the Slytherins?" Lily said sounding more alarmed then she had intended to,

"Don't worry about it" Miriam assured her "Some of them have never been on a broom before either!" Falling off her broom wasn't worrying Lily, what was worrying her was the thought of what Bellatrix Black could do to her!

"I'm gong to say hi to Severus and Eloise" Miriam said as she left the Gryffindors and walked over to the Slytherins, Lily watched has Miriam was greeted by the Slytherins as though she was one of their own. Miriam spent fifteen minutes talking and laughing with the Slytherins while the Gryffindors stood silently a good distance away as though the Slytherins where contagious. Lily heard James talking to Sirius about Miriam's behaviour, he kept saying that it was unnatural for a Gryffindor to get along with Slytherins and then as Miriam was taking to Severus James started to mumble words under his breath. Has the flying teacher,Mister Podmore, arrived Miriam returned back to the Gryffindors.

"You'll never guess what I've just heard?" she whispered to Lily and Alice as she started to pull her hair into pigtails and tie them with black ribbons, which most of the girls in the class had done "Severus told me that Walden MacNair had to go to the Hospital wing last night to fix a black eye and cut cheek, because he'd been fighting with a fifth year! Well I asked Walden and he said he hadn't seen anyone else in the Hospital wing" Miriam now lowered her voice even more and Lily and Alice had to lean closer so that they could hear her "He also said that he had to wait for madam Pomfrey to return!"

"So that means he was there when Remus said he should have been?" Lily said in the same whispered voice as Miriam

"Exactly!"

"Why would he lie to us?" Alice asked, Miriam shrugged

"Ladies!" Called a voice behind them startling Lily and she jumped backwards into Frank Longbottom "would you please line up with the rest of your class I would like to start the lesson". The voice belonged to Mister Podmore the flying teacher, he was a tall thin man with a large hooked nose and a crown of grey hair circled the sides and back of his head, Lily was amazed at how much he resembled a vulture.

"I have laid out twenty brooms" Mister Podmore said pointing towards a strip of ground behind him, "Please stand next to a broom". Lily followed Alice, Miriam and the rest of the Gryffindors over to the brooms, they where laid out in two different rows, the Gryffindors and Slytherins lined up facing each other.

"Now that you have chosen your broom" Podmore said walking up the centre of the two groups "You will stretch out your hand over the broom and call in a firm, clear voice UP!" Lily watched Miriam stretching her hand out over the broom and she said almost lazily "Up" and before she had even finished saying the word the Broom leaped into her out stretched hand,

"Very good Miss Artemis!" Mister Podmore said still walking up and down the two rows of students "But after all with a brother like Jedidiah I wouldn't really have expected any less from you" Lily looked at Miriam just in time to see her rolling her eyes, Mister Podmore spent the next five minutes regaling the class of the excellent goals that Jedidiah Artemis had scored in the last Quidditch match of last term, winning Slytherin house the Cup, throughout Podmore's play by play account of the winning game Lily noticed that Miriam remained the only person who had managed to get her broom off the ground, even the Slytherin boys Rabastan Lestrange and Walden MacNair who had been boasting about how they had grown up flying every day only managed to get their brooms to roll around on the ground a little.

"Very good Mr Potter" called Podmore Looking down the line of Gryffindors, James Potter, Alice's twin brother had managed to call his broom into his hand and has Lily watched so had his friend Sirius Black, the other Gryffindor boys seemed to be having a little more trouble with their brooms, Remus Lupin's refused point blank to move at all, Frank Longbottom's raised with so much force that he dived out of it's way and little Peter Pettigrew's wriggled happily on the floor. Lily was having about as much luck as Remus, her broom just lay there in the sun soaked grass,

'_Maybe it wasn't magical after all_' Lily thought maybe she'd got a dud one that the magic had worn off on, it seemed to be extremely old and battered,

"You have to think about the broom when you're saying the words" Miriam told her "it's more of telling it what to do with you mind and your actions rather then your voice" And Miriam was absolutely right thinking very hard about the broom rising up into the air Lily called "UP" and the broom did!, it gently rose and hovered below Lily's hand, but Lily was so happy saying "I did it, I did it" that she forgot to concentrate on the broom and it fell back down on the grass

"Oh," Lily mumbled "but I did do it".

After fifteen more minutes the whole class had managed to get their booms into their hands, However Lily saw that Peter Pettigrew had cheated, his broom was still lying in the grass at his side when Mister Podmore walked passed him and when Podmore's back was turned Peter quickly bent down and picked his broom up. After Mister Podmore was satisfied that everyone had their brooms he told them to mount their brooms and he went around correcting people's stance's and hand positions. Lily laughed to herself when Mister Podmore informed Lestrange and MacNair that their stance was completely wrong and that their hands should be higher up the broom's handle to give them suitable stability in flight,

"Excellent Miss Artemis, Excellent, I can tell that Jedidiah's been giving you some personal tuition over the summer" Podmore said has he passed Lily and Miriam, Miriam scoffed but Lily was glad, because he didn't make any corrections to her stance or hand positions, Podmore again started off on a recital of Jedidiah's Quidditch abilities and his first time in Podmore's flying lessons,

"I remember it very clearly" Podmore told the class "I could tell that he had the talent told him myself that very day, he was a natural, it was such a pity that the Slytherin team was already full but as soon as Delbert Peasgood left I told him to tryout immediately......" Lily heard Miriam sigh loudly, and they spent the next half hour listening to Podmore rattle on about Jedidiah and his best mate Ludo who was also on the Slytherin Quidditch team. In the last five minutes of the lesson they where able to have a quick fly, Lily was very nervous at this, but it wasn't at all bad and she was beginning to enjoy it. They where only allowed to hover a few feet off the ground '_but still_' Lily thought '_I'm quite good at this_'.

Lestrange and MacNair were more bothered about showing off then listening to Podmore's instructions they kept removing their hands from the brooms handles when Podmore's back was turned showing everyone that they could keep their balance without holding the handle and in the Gryffindor line James and Sirius where playfully trying to knock each other off their brooms. Lily couldn't believe it, the lesson seemed to have been very mundane but in the last few minuets it had turned into complete bedlam Podmore had spotted James and Sirius and was yelling at them for messing around, there was a very loud thud from the Slytherin row, and looking in the noises direction Lily smiled as Lestrange and MacNair both lost control of their brooms and crashed into each other and ploughed themselves into the ground, the Gryffindors burst into laughter and Lily then heard a muttering next to her, turning she saw James quickly stuffing his wand back into his robes pocket with a very smug look on his face.

"Help!" called Severus Snape, from the Slytherin row, he was flouting ten feet from the ground and his broomstick was bucking madly.

"Mr Snape kindly bring that broom back down here!" Mister Podmore roared has Severus's broom soared higher and higher still bucking "Come back boy!" Podmore roared again, but it was useless yelling even Lily who had only held a broom for the first time that day could tell that Severus wasn't in control of his broom,

"Help!" Severus yelled and the broom bucked even harder, Lily and the rest of the girls gasps has Severus lost his balance on the last jolt the broom had made and he rolled under the broom hanging on with his arms and legs crossed over the handle, James and Sirius burst into laughter but no one else seemed too find it funny, even Mister Podmore didn't seem to know what to do for the best he had removed his wand from his robes and Lily thought that he looked as though he couldn't figure out what spell he should use. Thankfully Mister Podmore wasn't left to ponder this for long, Lily felt a whoosh besides her as Miriam proved that she really could fly extremely well, she hadn't at all been exaggerating her talents, if any thing Lily thought Miriam had been understating her ability.

Severus' Broom bucked again and he completely lost his grip this time and fell, Lily saw Miriam immediately turn her broom and head into a dive, all the first years gasped,

"She'll crash" Alice and Amy squealed,

"No she's not!" Roared Dymphna, and Dymphna was right Miriam had managed to get herself under Severus pulled him onto the broom and pulled out of the dive feet from the ground,

"Merlin's beard Miss Artemis!" Podmore roared amongst the cheering of both classes has Miriam and Severus landed "absolutely marvellous I'll be sure to tell Jedidiah that he'll be having some competition if you make it onto the Gryffindor team in a few years time" Lily made her way through crowd that had gathered around Miriam and Severus and in the distance she heard the bell ring signalling the end of the lesson. Miriam pulled herself out of the throng to join Lily every one was trying to get close to her to congratulate her,

"Well Class dismissed!" Podmore called excitedly, Lestrange and MacNair lead the Slytherins out of the crowded students and they pushed past Lily and Miriam on their way back up to the grate hall.

"Severus are you alright" Lily heard Eloise Rookwood ask as she Maureen Pritchard and Bellatrix cooed over him,

"Those brooms are so ancient" Lily heard Lestrange say "It isn't any wonder that we all weren't killed",

"There isn't anything wrong with those brooms" Lily heard Miriam mumble her face like thunder,

"I don't understand?" Lily asked turning to look at her friend "You of all people saw what happened to poor Severus, surly you can tell that those brooms are a safety hazard, being so old"

"The older the better if you ask me," Miriam said heatedly, then she sighed at the confused look on Lily's face and she explained "those brooms are all Oakshaft 79's, the best brooms every invented, okay the new nimbus series out strips them on speed, height and agility, but the Oakshafts are the safest brooms ever to have been invented, but like most brooms their not jinx proof!"

"So-So let me get this right" Alice said eyeing Miriam up has though she'd gone mad "You think someone would purposefully Jinx Severus' broom?"

"Severus wasn't hurting anyone! Who would do something like that?" said Lily horrified, Severus Snape maybe a little odd but Miriam seemed to like him, and it was only the first week so he couldn't have done anything to have upset anyone, not that Lily knew of anyway.

"James" Alice Muttered

"What?"

"James, I bet you it was James, this is just the type of thing he'd do as well!"


	7. Pureblood, Mudblood

**Chapter 7: -** Pureblood, Mudblood

Lily, Alice and Miriam were the last in the class to return to the Great Hall for lunch, And has they stepped through the huge oak doors the four long house tables burst into applause and cheering and complete strangers that Lily had never seen before rushed forwards to shake Miriam's hand and congratulated her. They had only been a few minutes behind the class but it was obvious that the story of what had happened in the flying lesson had already spread, Miriam didn't look very happy about all the attention that she was receiving from the other students and she tried twice to get away from the mass but unsuccessfully. The three of them where only saved by the appearance of Miriam's older Brothers Thaddeus and Jedidiah, both looking very concerned for their sisters welfare.  
  
"Go on hop it!" Jedidiah scowled at a group of third year Revenclaws gesturing with is thumb, the look on Jedidiah's face told them that he wasn't joking and they slinked off back to their table along with the rest of crowd that had gathered.  
  
"We're very proud of you sis" Thaddeus said putting his arm around Miriam's shoulder as he and Jedidiah escorted them over to the Gryffindor table,  
  
"It was bloody stupid!" Jedidiah said gruffly startling Lily and Alice, out of all the words she could have used Lily would never have described what Miriam had done as stupid! Brave yes, Heroic definitely! But bloody stupid! Jedidiah didn't even seem to realise that he had said something out of the ordinary in fact Thaddeus was now even agreeing with him.  
  
"Proud as I am Mi you shouldn't have done it!" Thaddeus said shaking his head  
  
"You could have been hurt!" Jedidiah cut in, sounding angry,  
  
"Mother would never have forgiven us if anything had happened to you" Said Thaddeus cutting across Jedidiah. As much as Lily found the concern of Miriam's brothers for their sister very touching Lily couldn't help but think that it was very strange, they were speaking as though Miriam could have been killed!  
  
After persuading her brothers that she was fine and that she would never do anything like it ever again Thaddeus and Jedidiah left to go back to the Slytherin table. Lily, Alice and Miriam sat down at the Gryffindor table and helped themselves to food. Lily didn't feel much like eating, she kept going over in her mind what had happened during the Flying lesson, those mumbled words she had heard and the fact that when she had turned to look they had come from James and he was quickly hiding his wand in his pocket, she didn't want to think that James could have done something so malicious but even Alice seemed convinced that it was him. Miriam seemed to be thinking about what had happened too, she was prodding her pork chop with her fork and her face had that same thoughtful expression that it had worn the previous night.  
  
"Why did you do it?" Lily heard Miriam say in a very audible voice, the first years fell silent and they all turned to look at her  
  
"I don't know what you mean?" James said raising his head to look at Miriam, his expression was blank  
  
"You're not some how implying that James and I had anything to do with that little display, are you?" Sirius Black said innocently, Miriam stared at them for a while and when she finally did speak her voice was calm and unwavering  
  
"Did it give you some sort of pleasure seeing Severus humiliated like that? Or did you do it to get back at him for something he'd done to you?"  
  
"I haven't a clue what you're going on about" James replied the corner of his mouth struggling to contain a smile that was threatening to brake free,  
  
"Think its funny do you!" Lily found herself snapping at James "does it amuse you that you could have killed Severus"  
  
"Feel sorry for him do you?" Sirius snapped at her "Well don't he wouldn't have felt sorry if it was you!"  
  
"And that some how makes it right does it?" Lily retorted, her cheeks burning as red as her hair "I should only show compassion to people who would show it to me?"  
  
"Believe me" exclaimed James "If that had happened to you this hall would have been filled with laughter not cheering and shouts of congratulations!"  
  
"That's enough!" said the voice of Remus Lupin from next to James "Were all supposed to be friends aren't we?"  
  
But at this particular moment Lily didn't even want to look at James and Sirius let alone be friends with them and by the looks of it neither did Miriam.  
  
After Lunch the Gryffindors headed for the dungeons for their second class of the day with the Slytherins: Potions.  
  
Potions class was just as bad as Defence against the dark arts the previous day. Professor Toll the witch that taught the Potions class was a substitute teacher, the real teacher Professor Inconstans, hadn't been seen at the school for over six months. It had been rumoured that he had gone into the forbidden forest last term to collect fungi for potion ingredients and had been eaten by werewolf's but some people Thaddeus Artemis for one (or so Miriam told Lily has they sat at the back of the class) believed that Professor Inconstans had just simply had enough of the students and had left the school one day in the dead of night. Professor Toll set them all an exam in their first lesson, saying that she wanted to see how much they had all learned from the set books over the summer, Lily was really nervous about this and was very surprised to discover that she had got top marks along with Miriam, Remus, Sirius, James and Severus. Alice was just happy that she hadn't failed because Professor Toll read out the names of all those who had at the end of the class,  
  
"Mr Avery, Miss Rookwood, Mr MacNair, and Miss Black" Professor Toll said, Lily stifled a laugh, as Bellatrix's name was mentioned; unfortunately Bellatrix who was sitting at the table in front had heard her.  
  
"You will all be expected to improve upon your marks for next lesson" Toll informed them "Others will have more room for improvements then most" she said this last part glaring at the Slytherins most of whom had all failed and just has the bell rang Toll set them their first piece of homework a three foot essay on the uses and importance of boil potions.  
  
The Gryffindor first years sat separately at dinner that evening James, Sirius and the rest of the boys sat at one end of the long house table while Lily, Miriam, Alice, Dymphna and Amy sat at the other end. Dinner was very subdued for the girls and to Lily the hall seemed even larger then before she was also sure that Bellatrix Black kept glaring at her from the Slytherin table or maybe it was just a figment of her imagination.  
  
It didn't take long for Lily and Miriam to tire of sitting in the Great Hall and after half an hour they and Alice decided to head up to Gryffindor tower before the rest of the students had even started on pudding, they climbed the marble staircase, passed the first floor and climbed the stairs to the second,  
  
"I'm going to nip to the toilet" Miriam announced as they passed the girls bathroom on the second floor "I'll meet you up there" Lily and Alice nodded and climbed the stairs to the third floor and then the fourth,  
  
"I hate climbing all these stairs" Alice said warily "who decided the entrance for Gryffindor should be on the seventh floor anyway?"  
  
"Perhaps they wanted to give a fatty like you some exercise!" said a spiteful voice from behind them, turning Lily saw standing on the corridor below them the thin, dark haired, heavily lidded form of Bellatrix Black and her face was splitting into one of her trademark evil smiles has she raised her wand and pointed it at Lily and Alice.  
  
"I heard you laughing at me" Bellatrix shot at Lily as she slowly climbed the stairs and again just like back in the compartment on the Hogwarts express Lily's legs refused to move.  
  
"You think you're really something don't you?" Bellatrix continued, moving slowly towards them "But your guardian isn't here now is she?"  
  
Lily didn't know what Bellatrix was going on about what guardian! Her brain was screaming RUN! But her legs felt weak and still refused to move.  
  
"What are you jabbering on about?" Alice asked Bellatrix and Lily suddenly realised that she wasn't alone on the stairs after all, the appearance of Bellatrix had made Lily completely forget that Alice was with her.  
  
"Do you really think that an Artemis would really want friends that are lower then themselves?" Bellatrix said her smile growing even more malevolent has she climbed the stairs closer and closer, Lily backed into the wall. So this is what it was all about then was it? Bellatrix Black didn't like the idea of Miriam being friends with Lily, but why?  
  
"Your... Your just jealous that Miriam's our friend" Lily attempted to say but Bellatrix just laughed insanely,  
  
"Jealous of a disgusting filthy Mudblood like you?" she laughed again raising her wand higher pointing it straight at Lily's face  
  
"Oi don't call her that!" Alice yelled angrily and Lily understood that she had just been insulted,  
  
"Protecting the Mudblood are you?" Bellatrix yelled turning her wand point to Alice "Your as bad as the Mudblood you filthy Blood traitor"  
  
"I'd rather be a Blood traitor then a horrid hag like you any day!" Alice retorted, and Lily immediately whished she hadn't, Bellatrix screamed and was about to yell something when,  
  
"Expelliarmus!" cried a voice from the bottom of the stairs, Bellatrix's wand flew from her hand landed on the step beneath her and rolled to the foot of the stairs and came to rest at the feet of Frank Longbottom. Frank had his wand raised and was looking extremely angry,  
  
"Leave them alone Black" he called, advancing up the stairs his wand still raised and pointing at Bellatrix  
  
"You've just made a very big mistake Longbottom" Bellatrix scowled,  
  
"You made the mistake first" Frank said grinning has he finally reach the top stair, Bellatrix glared at him for a second than took off back down the stairs stopping only to retrieve her wand and then she pelted down the corridor.  
  
Lily let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the corridor wall, she felt so helpless, and why did Bellatrix hate her so much? Surly it wasn't just because she was friends with Miriam! Lily sighed again but this time it was to try and fight back the tears that where swelling up in her eyes but she couldn't hold them back and now she was really crying, huge tears rolled down her hot red cheeks and she slid down the wall sitting on the corridor floor,  
  
"Don't cry" Alice implored her, kneeling down next to her and putting her arm around Lily's shoulders "Please don't cry"  
  
"Yeah Lily, Bellatrix Black isn't worth anyone to worry about" Frank said kindly trying to reassure her, Lily didn't know why she was crying, she tried to explain this to Frank and Alice but her mouth only flapped open and no words would come out it only made the tears come faster and harder.  
  
"Never-" called a voice from the bottom of the bottom of the stairs "Ever use the toilet on the second floor" the voice belonged to Miriam she was climbing the stairs towards them when she suddenly stopped, staring at the scene in front of her  
  
"What's wrong?" Miriam asked sounding extremely worried as she dashed up the flight of stairs to join them  
  
"Bellatrix Black called Lily a....a filthy Mudblood" Alice said quietly  
  
"She didn't!!!" Miriam yelled indignantly looking at Lily, Lily nodded tears streaming down her face. Below them they could hear the many feet of the other students climbing the stairs on their way back to Gryffindor tower,  
  
"Quickly" Said Frank grabbing Lily under her arms and pulling her up, they all headed into the nearest classroom and Frank closed the door behind them and steered Lily into the nearest chair. Lily was very grateful to Frank for this she didn't want the rest of the school to know that she'd been crying and she most certainly didn't want to explain to them why.  
  
"Here" Frank said kindly and he gave Lily his handkerchief, which Lily took trying to force a smile as she wiped her tears off her cheeks,  
  
"What happened?" Lily heard Miriam ask the others as she sat next to Lily her arm around Lily's shoulder and Alice and Frank both explained what had happened.  
  
"Lily you have to understand something" Miriam said after Alice and Frank had finished telling her what had happened and Lily had finally dried her eyes "There are some wizarding families like mine and the Blacks who think that their better then others, because we're, what we call ourselves, Pureblood. The truth is we're all just inbred cretins", Lily managed to laugh at this, she knew that Miriam was only trying to cheer her up and Miriam, Alice and Frank smiled  
  
"Don't worry about it" Miriam reassured her "so what if she's inbred that makes you different from the rest of us doesn't it? It doesn't mean your not as good, did you see her in potions she failed that test didn't she but you didn't, did you!"  
  
"It was only because I read the text book over the summer" Lily said her voice sounding very weak  
  
"Precisely!" Miriam said as though what Lily had said solved everything "Bellatrix could have done that too but she didn't did she? And shall I tell you why" Miriam didn't even wait for a reply before she continued "It's because she thinks that because she's a Pureblood that it means she already knows everything and that she's superior to everyone else"  
  
"You haven't got to let the likes of Bellatrix Black upset you Lily" Frank said squeezing her shoulder gently "there are people like Bellatrix every where even in the Muggle world! Just because over generations they have claimed to be different doesn't make them any better"  
  
"Unless you're an Artemis" Miriam said grinning "Then you are different!"  
  
"Yes" Frank said smiling at Miriam "Artemis' are different, their more gullible for a start" Miriam punched him playfully on the arm and Lily and Alice both giggled. Like in most cases when someone has done something really exceptional to help you Lily, Miriam, Alice and Frank all become very firm friends, in fact with the addition of Frank into their threesome there was much more fun and laughter as the four friends played off each others strongest characteristics.


	8. Curfews and games

**Chapter 8: -** Curfews and games

After Lily assured Miriam, Alice and Frank that she was feeling loads better the four friends headed back up to Gryffindor tower,  
  
"Where have you four been?" yelled the extremely angry voice of Amanda Hugh- Genghis as they climbed through the portrait hole. "The first year's curfew started fifteen minuets ago!!!" Lily didn't understand why Amanda was being so angry last night they had been over an hour late and Amanda hadn't said anything. Amanda continued her rant for over half an hour loud enough for everyone in the common room to hear, even students that had gone to their dormitories had came back down to watch the show.  
  
It turned out that James and Sirius had informed Amanda that the girls had been out past curfew the previous night and after discovering that they weren't in the common room tonight Amanda, who was a stickler for rules had become very angry indeed.  
  
"Are you four some how exempt from the rules that are set down for your own safety?" Amanda asked practically screaming, her voice growing horse "Are members of the ancient family of Artemis some how above rules" at this Miriam tried to protest but Amanda shot her down  
  
"You have only been here a few days so I don't expect you to be fully aware of all the schools rules but Dumbledore himself expressed that curfews where to be kept" Amanda finished by saying that all the first years would now have to be in the common room immediately after the evening meal and that she herself would be escorting them from the Great hall to Gryffindor tower. Gideon and Richard tried to protest saying that it wasn't within Amanda's prefect powers to change the starting times of the curfews but this just made Amanda even angrier and she moved all the years curfews forward an hour.  
  
It was safe to say that no one in Gryffindor tower was very happy that night, all the other years blamed Lily, Miriam, Alice and Frank for the mental breakdown of Amanda, whereas only the first years remembered that the people who had started it all was sitting at the very back of the common room doubled over in silent laughter: James Potter and Sirius Black.  
  
"Why did you do it?" Lily said angrily before Miriam could open her mouth, has they moved over to the table where James, Sirius, Remus and Peter where sitting.  
  
"Why?" James said trying to keep a straight face "Because we could!" he burst out laughing  
  
"We never meant it to go this far though" Sirius said smiling and wiping a tear from his eye "and we never meant to get you involved Frank, sorry"  
  
"We only wanted to show you three a lesson" James said finally pulling himself together  
  
"A lesson!" Miriam said her jaw clenched "What for?"  
  
"For spoiling our little bit of fun with Snivellus Snape" Sirius said smiling  
  
"Well congratulations boys" Lily said raising her voice "you've got exactly what you wanted plus a lot more, the new curfew rules apply to you as well!"  
  
James and Sirius's faces dropped they obviously hadn't though of that and Lily, Miriam and Alice headed off to the girls dormitory feeling a little bit better for having wiped the smug smiles of James and Sirius's faces.  
  
The next day was Saturday and Amanda was being very strict with the first years now, while all the other years where allowed to sleep in Amanda made it her personal task to make sure that the first years despised each other as much as possible. She woke them all very early telling them to be washed, changed and in the common room in ten minuets. She even woke the boys has Gideon and Richard had refuse point blank to help her on her self- destructive and demoralizing campaign. At seven thirty she walked the first years over to the Library where she instructed them to start on their homework. They did this for over an hour before she trooped them off to the Great Hall for breakfast and it didn't take much for Amy and Dymphna to agree with Lily, Miriam and Alice that James and Sirius were to be blamed for the worsening of their lives at Hogwarts.  
  
That Afternoon during Lunch Frank and the girls sat apart from James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. Lily, Miriam and Alice told Frank what they had seen the night they where in the Owlery and what Miriam had heard at the start of the flying lesson, it took all of Lunch to tell him has they didn't want Amy or Dymphna to hear, mainly because they didn't want to get Amy and Dymphna or themselves into any trouble.  
  
Amanda had decided to give the First years the afternoon off, they had spent the morning back in the Library doing their homework, but as she left them in the entrance hall she told them that she'd be very angry if they hadn't finished the essay by that evening. And so it was that while the whole school was free to roam the grounds has much as they wanted Lily, Alice, Amy, Dymphna and Frank where found to be sitting in the shade of the tree by the lake, finishing their essay for Potions. Their position under the tree served as a duel purpose, not only did it provide much needed shade on such a warm September afternoon but it gave the best view of the grounds,  
  
"Hay" Miriam said running over to them, after lunch Miriam had gone to find her older Brothers to find out as much information as she could about anything that would throw some light onto what they had seen two nights ago "Tad's told me that the large willow tree is called a Whomping Willow, apparently it's a native species of brazil. He also said that it's a new addition to the grounds because it wasn't here last year!"  
  
"So who ever planted it" Frank said leaning in close so that Amy and Dymphna couldn't hear "Must have planted it for a reason?"  
  
"That's the best part!" Miriam said enthusiastically trying to keep her voice low "Tad said the trees sort of alive, it's aware of its surroundings"  
  
"So that's why it sways around like that, especially when their playing Tag" Alice said indicating a group of fourth and fifth years grouped near the tree. Several of the older students had started a game when they had discovered that the huge willow tree could move. Lily discovered that it was in fact devised by Miriam's other brother Jedidiah and his partner in crime Ludovic Bagman. The game was named 'Tag' but Lily really though it should be renamed Dodge.  
  
Tag players consisted entirely of boys (Lily liked to think that none of the female students were stupid enough to play) the object of the game was to touch the large gnarled trunk of the tree but has the large flexible branches could twist and bend in all directions the truck was impossible to reach. Madam Pomfrey was kept extremely busy by the participants of the game; there was a constant flow of students heading up to the Hospital wing with cuts, bumps and bruisers, but more and more students wanted to play.  
  
"But why would anyone want to plant such a violent tree in the middle of a schools ground?" Frank asked,  
  
"Well firstly it isn't an anyone" Lily said, they all looked at her as though she'd gone insane "well it's obvious who planted it or at least had it planted, it had to be Dumbledore" They all agreed on that point after all he had been seen coming out of it,  
  
"So the main thing we have to find out is what's it being used for" Miriam said looking back at the willow and the boys still playing their game "It's obvious that it's not in use now!"  
  
"What makes you say that?" Frank asked her looking a little surprised  
  
"That's easy to tell" Miriam said nonchalantly "The grounds would be crawling with teachers trying to keep them away from it" again they all agreed that point too,  
  
"I say we head back to the Owlery again tonight and see if anyone comes out to use it" Miriam said as though it was the best idea in the entire world, Lily, Frank and Alice still remembering the ear bashing that they had received last night from Amanda and the new curfew enforcements began to object in unison to Miriam's idea but their protests where cut short by a sickening scream behind them.


	9. Letters from home

**Chapter 9: - **Letters from home  
  
"I am very sure you are all aware of the tragic circumstances that have lead to Ravenclaws Mr Davey Gudgeon to end up in the hospital wing" Professor McGonagall said that evening as all of the Gryffindors crowded into the common room. The entire school had been sent back to their house common rooms immediately after the teachers had rescued Davey Gudgeon from the branches of the Whomping Willow that had tangled themselves around Davey's body.  
  
The school grounds had resembled a battlefield that afternoon students were screaming and running around hysterically while others ran towards the noises to find out what was going on, the ground near the willow was covered in blood and the teachers that had come to try and restore order found it extremely difficult. Professor Sprout the Herbology professor lead other teachers in firing stunning spell at the willow tree with very little success, it wasn't until the arrival of Dumbledore that any sense of order was restored. Davey was retrieved from the trees grasp by Hagrid who had received raucous applause and cheering from all the students. Dumbledore had then instructed all the Prefects to lead their houses back to their common rooms where they had waited, discussing all the different details that they could remember about what had happened and in true Hogwarts style the story got more and more wilder the more times it was told.  
  
Lily had heard a third year girl telling her friends that Davey Gudgeon and the other students that had been playing Tag believed that the tree held some mystical powers and that who ever could reach the narrow gap in the trees trunk would be able to become the most powerful wizard ever, the girl also said that this was the reason why the tree had managed to have appeared on the grounds when it wasn't there last year and why it was now almost fully grown.  
  
They had spent almost two hours in the common room waiting to hear of any news about Davey's condition and still more and more rumours flew widely around from person to person and tempers began to start getting frayed as people like Miriam and Sirius where forced to stay in such close proximity with each other.  
  
Lily had left Miriam and Sirius yelling at each other as James and Alice Potter both tried to calm their own friends down, Lily had noticed that Remus Lupin was looking extremely worried about something. Lily had asked if he'd wanted to talk about what was troubling him but all he said was that it was his fault and it shouldn't have happened. Lily had tried to point out to Remus that he wasn't even near the willow when Davey had been hurt and so it wasn't Remus' fault but still he insisted that it was even though he wouldn't tell her why. Finally Miriam and Sirius' argument was cut short by Gideon who insisted that nothing that had happened to Davey was anything to do with Miriam's brother, as Sirius had been insisting it had. Gideon guided them over to separate corners of the Common room and told them to stay put or he wouldn't ask Amanda to remove her curfew enforcements. Shortly after this Professor McGonagall had arrived and had started announcing to all of the Gryffindors what had been happening while the students had been forced to spend the rest of what was quite possibly the last summer like day of the year inside.  
  
"You all will be pleased to hear that Mr Gudgeon has not been permanently injured although madam Pomfrey is insisting that he spends the next few day in the hospital wing, he will eventually make a full recovery" McGonagall continued as a few of the Gryffindors cheered "It has also been agreed by myself the other heads of houses and by Professor Dumbledore that an episode like this should not occur again there for any student that is found in the proximity of the Whomping Willow will face immediate expulsions, do I make myself clear?"  
  
McGonagall waited as a wave of nods and general agreement swept through the common room, then she proceeded to the notice board and pined a piece of parchment to it announcing to all that the Whomping Willow was off limits, she then swept out of the common room.  
  
For Lily, Alice and Frank the only good that had come out of this day was the fact that Miriam had seemed to forget all about her idea of heading back up to the Owlery that night.  
  
That evening after Amanda Hugh-Genghis had insisted on checking all the first years' potion essays she had allowed them to spend the few hours before bed doing what they wanted. Remus who had seemed to have recovered a little after hearing that Davey Gudgeon was to make a full recovery, sat on the hearth rug with Miriam, Frank, Amy and Dymphna playing with Miriam's Kneazle, Mac. Alice was teaching Lily how to play wizards chess, Peter Pettigrew in Amanda's eyes had written the poorest essay out of all the first years and had insisted that he rewrote it under her supervision and James and Sirius had now been completely exiled by the girls and was now sitting at a table on their own whispering to each other behind their hands has they threw the others mischievous looks.  
  
Sunday started out pretty much the same as Saturday, Amanda had again woken them all really early, but having no more homework to do she had insisted that they should read through their set books and practice some of the different spells. Lily actually liked doing this, the first years hadn't had Transfiguration yet has term had started midweek and McGonagall's transfiguration class was a double period on Monday afternoons. Amanda had shown them all how to change the different objects that she had collected into pins then she gave them all a match or small twig each to practice on.  
  
"You're all doing very well" Amanda said has Peter had managed to finally make his twig look less twiggy "Professor McGonagall's going to be really pleased when it's Gryffindor that's the best in the year at transfiguration!" Amanda said happily as she lead them out of the class room they where using and into the Great hall for breakfast.  
  
They where the first into the great hall for the third time in as many days and again the boys sat separately from the girls even Frank had decided to sit with James and Sirius this morning.  
  
"Turncoat!" Miriam called after him has she sat down next to Lily, but Frank just smiled and waved his hand dismissively has he sat next to Remus. They all filled their plates and started eating has the great hall started to finally fill.  
  
"Look" called Alice pointing to the ceiling as a loud Whoosh reached Lily's ears telling her that the morning post had arrived.  
  
'_They even deliver on Sundays!_' was the thought that ran through Lily's mind has she turned to look in the direction Alice had pointed. She had completely forgotten about the letter she had sent to her parents a few days ago so much had happened since then that it seemed a life time ago but seeing Ichabod swooping low over the heads of the other students with a letter tightly clasped in his beak made Lily smile.  
  
Ichabod dropped the letter onto Lily's lap and moved over to Miriam to be rewarded and praised for having delivered his letters; Miriam and Alice fed Ichabod strips of bacon and allowed him to drink from their pumpkin juice while Lily tore open her Letter.

> _Lily, _
> 
> _It was so wonderful to find out how they deliver letters in the wizarding world, Ichabod gave your mother such a fright when she opened the window in the morning and he flew in, but we think that next time we will be much more prepared for it. Please thank your friends brother for letting you borrow his owl_ (Lily felt a slight pang of regret at this has Miriam had never told Thaddeus that they had borrowed Ichabod at all).

The rest of the letter was very mundane just her parents wishing her the best and telling her that everyone was well and that life at home was continuing as normal in her absence, lily felt slightly sad at reading that life at home was still the same and cursed herself for wondering if her mum and dad actually missed her  
  
'Of cause they did' Lily had to tell herself, they probably missed her more then she was missing them. Lily smiled as she read the end of the letter it was signed 'With Love' by her mum, dad and Sister, Petunia had signed it! Petunia was missing her has well and Lily smiled even broader at this though.  
  
"You used my owl!" the voice of Thaddeus Artemis said sounding outraged has he strode down the gaps between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables towards his sister followed by his white blond haired friend. Thaddeus's friend looked very similar to Thaddeus, he was tall and slim and had startling blue eyes just like Miriam's, but apart from the difference of hair colour his face was slightly pointed.  
  
"Oh please" Miriam scoffed turning to look at them "you only use Ichabod during the holidays and only then it's to send letters to your girlfriend"  
  
"Girlfriend!" Exclaimed the white blond boy has he turned to look at Thaddeus in surprise "You sly fox! You never told me you had a girlfriend! Who is she Mi!" He said the last part has he sat down next to Miriam putting his arm around her "Who is she?" he urged again excitedly,  
  
"Don't you dare tell him Mi, not if you know what's good for you!" Thaddeus said furiously  
  
"Tad dear boy, don't try to intimidate your little sister" Thaddeus' friend mocked pulling Miriam even closer into him, Lily couldn't help but see that Miriam didn't look too thrilled about this  
  
"Ok Lucius" Miriam said trying to push herself free from his grasp "I'll tell you, it's the very elusive Miss N.B."  
  
"MI!" yelled Thaddeus grabbing her around the face covering her mouth "How could you!"  
  
"N B" Lucius said pondering the name but it was obvious that he didn't know "N B" he said again mumbling under his breath,  
  
"Now, now boys behave" said a genteel voice from behind them; it was the light blond girl who Lily had seen sitting next to Bellatrix at the Slytherin table,  
  
"N- Narcissa" Thaddeus stammered has he realised what the scene must look like, he was still holding Miriam tightly around the mouth with one hand his other was holding Lucius back has he tried to pull Thaddeus' arm free from Miriam's mouth with one hand and his other was still around Miriam's shoulder holding her tightly against him. Lily could hear Miriam's muffled laughter from under her brothers arm and Lily, Alice, Amy and Dymphna even found they too were laughing at the expression of the two boys faces, Thaddeus' face was swept in fear as he looked at Narcissus as she crossed to the doors and out of the hall,  
  
"Narcissa!" Lucius said in astonishment as comprehension dawned on his face "N B Narcissuses Black? Your dating Narc-" Thaddeus had released Miriam and dived at his friend cutting him off has he covered his mouth. Lily, Alice, Amy and Dymphna roared with laughter at them and Miriam who was being squashed in between her brother and his friend and was looking very peeved.  
  
"Don't you dare say that out loud" Thaddeus warned his friend "don't you dare!"  
  
"Relax," Lucius said pulling Thaddeus' hand free "I'm not going to tell your folks" He smiled mischievously and Lily couldn't help but think that Lucius Malfoy was very good looking,  
  
"I'm just amazed that a git like you could manage to hook the most beautiful girl in the school" he slapped Thaddeus on the shoulder and grinned,  
  
"You're just jealous I got her first" Lily heard Thaddeus say has he and Lucius headed out of the hall.  
  
"What was all that about?" Amy asked still smiling as she looked at the backs of Thaddeus and Lucius disappear out into the entrance hall,  
  
"Lucius Malfoy is Tad's best friend, they've both been trying to go out with Narcissa Black since they where in their third year," Miriam said still looking slightly annoyed has she straightened her robes and de- ruffled her hair.  
  
"What did Lucius mean by he wouldn't tell your parents?" Lily asked and she heard Alice choke on her cereal, obviously she'd just asked a very stupid question but Miriam didn't seem to mind.  
  
"It's this really stupid rivalry between our two families, the Artemis' and the Blacks" Miriam said stroking Ichabod's head "It's been going on for centuries it's nothing really" Lily knew Miriam was lying and she distinctively saw Miriam look in the direction of Sirius Black who was sitting at the other end of the table with the rest of the first year boys,  
  
"So that's why you and Sirius don't get on?" Lily asked, she wasn't going to let Miriam get away with it so easily, Lily was intrigued and really wanted to know what was so bad to have caused a rift between the two families for several hundred years and more importantly what ever it was, was hindering the peaceful existence that the first year Gryffindors should be enjoying with each other. 


	10. Potions Class

**Chapter 10: -** Potions class  
  
Miriam kept refusing to answer Lily's question about why the Artemis' and Blacks disliked each other and all she kept saying was that it was just stupid and that it was nothing, even when Lily had pointed out that it was because of this so called 'Stupid' animosity between the families that the first years where now being watched like an hawk by Prefect Amanda Hugh- Genghis, Miriam had said that had nothing to do with anything about her family and everything to do with Sirius being a jerk!  
  
"But don't you see" Lily said that evening has all the first year girls sat in their dormitory "The reason we're sitting up here is because of the hostility between the Blacks and your family!"  
  
"No!" Miriam said slamming her trunk closed "the reason we're sitting up here is because Sirius and James think that it's funny to throw Dung bombs around the common room!"  
  
"She's got a point" Alice said bitterly as she pulled her slippers on and picked up her toiletry bag "The only reason we're here at all is because we all STINK!!!!" There was a groan of agreement from Amy and Dymphna.  
  
"I'm going to strangle Sirius and James with my bare hands" Dymphna said fuming,  
  
"Not before I get to them first" Amy said  
  
"That's if there's anything left of them after Hug-and-kiss has finished with them" Miriam said smiling as she thought about the possibilities of what Amanda Hugh-Genghis would be doing to the two boys at this very moment.  
  
"Don't you see that all this hatred between us and the boys can be linked directly to Miriam and Sirius and then to the fact that they both detest each other because of what ever happened between their families!" Lily said trying to get the girls to understand what she was saying  
  
"No I see that it's directly linked to that slime ball Mundungus Fletcher" Miriam said her temper rising "After all he was the one who got them the Dung bombs in the first place!"  
  
"You don't know that!" Lily said starting to get irritated, she'd been working on Miriam all day and had got nothing but an even more annoyed friend who became very snappy and kept blaming Sirius for everything; this was made even worse by Alice telling Miriam that she was absolutely right and saying that her brother was to be blamed as well.  
  
The prank in the common room had only just served to fuel the two girls' dislike of James and Sirius even more, and when Alice had said that she and the others stunk it was true the girls really did smell and it wasn't a pleasant smell. Sirius and James had persuaded Mundungus Fletcher, (which Lily thought wouldn't have took much to do) to get them some Dung bombs which they had released in the common room that evening making everyone who was in the room smell really bad. Why they had done it Lily had no idea all she knew was that most of them had been aimed at herself, Alice and Miriam.  
  
"But I'm trying to say that if your brother and Narcissa can put their differences aside then maybe you and Sirius could!" Lily said trying to persuade Miriam to think rationally  
  
"Lily, you know absolutely nothing about my family or the Blacks" Miriam retorted, has she spun round to face her brandishing her toiletry bag "And as for the differences between Tad and Narcissa there are none"  
  
"Well your exactly like Sirius! Your both bull headed!" Lily shouted in frustration before she could even stop herself, Miriam had opened her mouth to reply but a shout from the other side of the dormitory door stop Miriam from saying anything that she may have regretted  
  
"The Showers are free now, if your going to use them, but be quick the third years still need to use them" the voice was that of Dorcas Meadows the fifth year prefect. The girls traipsed to the showers feeling completely miserable, Lily knew that the reason for the bad feelings amongst the girls was entirely her fault she'd been asking Miriam again and again about what was the reason for her family to loathe the Black family so much and she hadn't relented all day, James and Sirius's Dung bomb prank had only helped to enhance the girls' foul moods but the course of the dispirited mood was all Lily's fault, she resolved to apologise to Miriam as soon has they had all stopped smelling like a pile of manure.  
  
After returning back to their dormitory each girl smelling fresh and clean, Lily turned to look at Miriam who was sitting on her bed brushing her wet hair has Mac purred loudly curled up on her pillow,  
  
"Miriam-" Lily began but she was cut off by Miriam  
  
"You don't have to apologise Lily" she said calmly "It's me who should. I know you was only trying to make us all get along with each other and believe me I would really try to if Sirius was willing to"  
  
Lily seriously doubted that Miriam would try to get along with Sirius even if her life depended on it but Lily appreciated the gesture  
  
"It's just that some people are not meant to get along with each other, and after tonight's little practical joke Sirius Black will wish that he never came to Hogwarts" Miriam continued as she still brushed her hair.  
  
Lily sighed kicked her slippers off and climbed into bed, she was glad that she and Miriam were still going to be friends and that neither one of them had said anything that they could regretted but Lily had the unsettling feeling that she was going to regret her part in winding Miriam up into wanting to take revenge on Sirius and James. She consoled herself by thinking that at least tomorrow was another day and that they where to start lessons again.  
  
By the next day the scene of the Gryffindor common room smelling too much like a cesspit in the summer sun felt like a distant memory, Amanda woke the first years even earlier then usual and talked them all through their times tables and what each lesson for today would involve. Lily was beginning to dislike Amanda Hugh-Genghis along with the rest of her fellow first years and Lily couldn't help but feel glad that Amanda's voice was sounding very horse this morning, because it meant two things, the first was that James and Sirius who where sitting separated from the rest of the year had received a very thorough chastising for the events of last night and secondly that Amanda wasn't going to be talking a lot today. Amanda's talk about what they should expect from the lessons ruined the classes for Lily that day because she already knew what they were going to do and there was no surprises.  
  
Monday morning was devoted to a lesson of Herbology and Charms, the Gryffindors had Herbology with the first year Hufflepuffs and Lily immediately understood why Miriam had wanted to have been sorted into that house, not only were they kind and helpful but they were a cheery bunch of students as well. In their first lesson they had to plant seeds into large trays, while the Herbology teacher Professor Sprout talked them through it, Lily, Alice and Miriam was joined at their tray by a smiling David Darcy, the boy who had shared the girls' boat on the crossing to Hogwarts. Darcy was also joined by his new friend Robert Smithson, who was as cute as Darcy and had short light brown hair. Lily really liked Darcy and Smithson they made her laugh and were fun to be around they all talked about how their first week had gone and when Lily, Miriam and Alice had told them all about Amanda Hugh-Genghis' new curfew regulations the boys where outraged on the girls behalf which made Lily like the pair even more. When the bell rang to signal the end of the class Lily felt slightly sorry that the Hufflepuffs where not going to be with them in Charms.  
  
The Charms professor was called Flitwick and was very tiny, he was even shorter then Amy Brown who was very small for her age, Flitwick's lesson was exactly has Amada had said it would be, With lots of talking about what they where going to do in the rest of the year and lots of theory work about the first charm spell they where going to learn in their next lesson.  
  
After lunch the Gryffindors had double Transfiguration with their head of house: Professor McGonagall. McGonagall was extremely pleased with them for being able to transfigure their matches on the first attempt and rewarded them all with five points each, she obviously hadn't know that Amanda had insisted on teaching them how to do that transfiguration the day before.  
  
"Very good Miss Evans" McGonagall said has she moved around the classroom looking at everyone's pins, Miriam had received an "Exceptional" from McGonagall and was given an extra ten house points because she had transformed her match into a very ornate hat pin with a fancy stylised thistle at the end of it which Professor McGonagall had even asked if she could keep.  
  
"Show off!" Sirius had hissed to her as McGonagall moved off to inspect Peter's attempts at changing his match into a pin, Lily held her breath waiting for Miriam to retaliate with a snide remark but none came, instead Miriam was smiling a very mischievous smile. Lily half wished that Miriam would have retorted to Sirius' comment because has Miriam kept smiling Lily knew that she was planning something.  
  
After Transfiguration the class headed down for dinner in the great hall but has Lily, Alice, Frank and the rest of the first years sat at the Gryffindor table Miriam had said that she needed to talk with Severus Snape and so headed off to sit with him at the Slytherin table.  
  
"What's she doing?" James asked sounding disgusted as he sat next to his sister "She's a Gryffindor hasn't she got any loyalty?"  
  
"You can talk!" Alice said pushing James away from her "Not only are we in the same house but we're family! And you still threw those Dung bombs at me!" James looked a little guilty and tried to apologies but Alice's mention of the Dung Bombs had relit the anger that the girls had felt the night before, James and Sirius scurried off to the safety of the other end of the table in a bombardment of chicken, mash potato, peas and other readily available food that was in the girls grabbing range.  
  
Even though Professor McGonagall had deducted twenty points for their behaviour and Amanda had shouted at them when they got back to the common room Lily could only think that it was all worth it has the memory of the Mash potato that she that thrown had hit James right at the back of his head. The animosity that had started between the girls and boys had increased in intensity by mid week and in potions that Thursday the girls was given another reason to dislike James and Sirius.  
  
Professor Toll made the Gryffindors and Slytherins pair up as she set them the task of creating a boils potions from the Homework they had been given, Lily was working with Alice while Miriam partnered Frank, across the other side of the room James and Sirius where working together mixing up their potion ingredients next to the table where Severus Snape and his partner Elwood Wilkes where adding their ingredients into their cauldron. Halfway through the class they had run out of Dandelion root and so Professor Toll left to get more, Like most classes as soon as the teacher leaves the room everyone started making a lot of noise, Miriam and Frank had turned round to talk to Alice and the Slytherins were yelling across the class to each other. Eloise Rookwood, Miriam's cousin was working at a separate cauldron from her friend Maureen Pritchard and so took Toll's absence from the class as an opportunity to shout to each other their plans for that evening, the noise was getting really loud now and Lily only wanted to concentrate on cutting up her ingredients.  
  
Above the noise Lily could hear Severus Snape laughing with his friend, Severus had obviously just made a joke has he and Wilkes roared with laughter. Lily had finished shredding her dandelion roots and looked up again to check on the next ingredients when James and Sirius hurled themselves across their table towards Severus and Wilkes punching and kicking them.  
  
Eloise Rookwood and Maureen Pritchard screamed as Walden MacNair and Antonin Dolohov joined in the fight,  
  
"Someone help!" shrieked Maureen has James punched Severus in the face, Frank and Remus dashed to help their friends fighting against MacNair and Dolohov who were trying and get to James and Sirius, Wilkes seemed to be forgotten as Sirius held Severus down, James punched him in the stomach,  
  
"Stop it!" yelled Miriam climbing onto her chair so she could be seen above the brawl "Stop it!"  
  
Amy and Dymphna on the other hand were yelling encouragements to the Slytherins as Dolohov had broken free from Frank's grasp and had grabbed hold of Sirius by his long black hair,  
  
"Scalp him!!!" Lily heard Dymphna yelling as she and Amy jumped up and down trying to see the fight.  
  
Lily didn't know what to do and looking around at Miriam and Alice neither did they, the other Slytherins were encouraging their friends, MacNair had finally freed himself from Remus' hold and had pinned him down on the class room floor,  
  
"Don't you dare!" Miriam yelled as MacNair raised his fist to hit Remus, Miriam jumped off her chair and flung herself at MacNair's raised hand kicking him in the face as they both crashed onto Remus. There was now two fights in the class room, James had left Severus and had gone to help free Sirius from Dolohov's grasp has Frank still tried to pull the Slytherin off Sirius, Remus was now trying to stop MacNair from hitting Miriam although she was sporting a cut lip that was bleeding very badly. Wilkes had moved out of the fighting area and was yelling encouragements with the rest of the Slytherins while Severus was lying on the floor crumpled up in amongst his black robes, Lily prayed he wasn't dead.  
  
The madness had to end Lily told herself as Alice screamed and Lily saw Dolohov punch James in the face and he crashed against the table and the cauldron on the desk shook violently,  
  
"We've got to stop this!" Lily yelled to Alice who nodded, Lily grabbed hold of her cauldron and she ran to MacNair who looked almost mad with rage he jabbed Remus in the stomach making him double over in pain and grabbed Miriam by the front of her robes pulling her up off the ground, he raised his fist again to punch her and as Miriam covered her face with her arms Lily brought to cauldron down onto MacNair's head covering him in it's contents and knocking him out as the heavy metal cauldron smashed down onto his skull,  
  
"MISS EVANS!" yelled the voice of Professor Toll has she finally returned back into the room. At the same moment MacNair had crashed to the ground pulling Miriam on top of him,  
  
"BOYS!!!" Shrieked Toll looking at James, Sirius, Frank and Dolohov, Lily was amazed to see that only a few seconds ago it looked like Dolohov was winning but now James and Frank was pinning Dolohov to the ground as Sirius pointed his wand at him, that scene and the one in front of Lily had all frozen at the entrance of Professor Toll and all Lily could think of has she stood holding her cauldron was that this didn't look very good at all.  
  
"What in Merlin's name has been going on here!" Troll asked almost hysterically has her eyes scanned the scene in front of her and her gaze rested on Miriam who was now trying to pull herself free from MacNair,  
  
"Miss Artemis!" Toll called her eyes widening as she saw the cut on Miriam's lip which was bleeding even worse now "quickly!, quickly!" Toll said rushing to pull Miriam free,  
  
"You there" she pointed to Elwood Wilkes and Morton Avery, "Bring Mr Snape and follow me quickly to the hospital wing"  
  
Lily didn't understand Toll's sudden change in attitude all lesson she'd been in a bad mood and having just seen what had happened in her absence Lily had half expected her to have exploded, but instead she seemed almost concerned for Miriam's welfare over something as mundane as a split lip, she didn't even give the Slytherins a second look as they carried an unconscious Severus Snape out of the class room but instead she had her arm around Miriam's shoulder holding her very close to herself, as she reached the door Toll turned and addressed the remainder of the class,  
  
"You will all wait here until I return do I make myself clear," she barked "and put those cauldrons out!" with that she swept out of the room and down the hall, Lily managed to get a quick look at Miriam before they disappeared down the hall, she was looking very pale and her lip was still bleeding Lily couldn't help but think she'd look pale too if Professor Toll had her arm around her too. 


	11. Actions and consequences

**Chapter 11: -** Actions and consequences  
  
They waited for over fifteen minutes, the bell to signal the end of the class had rung but no one moved not even Bellatrix Black who had stated very loudly that if the Gryffindors wanted to fight then it should be the Gryffindors who had to stay behind and miss dinner not the 'innocent' Slytherins. But all the same she still waited, apart from Bellatrix moaning the rest of the class was very silent.  
  
Lily felt her stomach churn but it wasn't from hunger, James and Sirius sat with their heads hung while Alice and Frank were helping Remus onto a near by stool as Amy and Dymphna cooed over the two boys. Lily tried to look around for something to take her mind off the pending doom of when Professor Toll returned, lily saw Peter Pettigrew crawling out from under his desk looking a little pale but otherwise completely unscathed. The seconds seemed to crawl past which is usual when you're dreading something to happen.  
  
When Professor Toll finally did return she wasn't alone, she entered the classroom looking even more annoyed then Lily had ever seen her before and following behind her was Professor McGonagall and Professor Viveridan the head of Slytherin house. Lily's stomach churned again she hadn't thought that Toll would fetch the heads of their houses and by the looks of it neither had James and Sirius but now seeing McGonagall's mouth narrowing to a small slit she should really have expected it.  
  
"Never in all my years!" Professor Toll said still sounding a little hysterical has she shook her head. Professor Viveridan did lots of shouting at them telling them all that he was extremely disappointed in everyone, Lily wished that McGonagall would shout too but she just stared at them her eyes flashing dangerously and her mouth narrowing even more, finally McGonagall asked the question that Lily knew had to be coming,  
  
"Who started this fight?" the Gryffindors looked at each other, none of them wanted to say anything, it wasn't because they wanted to protect James and Sirius the girls were far beyond caring about what happened to them now, it was manly due to the fact that none of them wanted to give the Slytherins the satisfaction of getting any of them into trouble,  
  
"I would like to know" Viveridan said drawing Lily's attention back to him "What exactly did happened. Two of your class mates are seriously injured and letters of explanations will have to be written to their parents"  
  
'Two!' Lily thought, Miriam wasn't seriously injured she'd only got a split lip! You can't die of a little cut on your lip! But even at Viveridan's strange words no one spoke, not even the Slytherins.  
  
"Very well then" McGonagall said crossing her arms in front of her "If none of you are willing to inform us what happened then this entire class will be held responsible," At this all the Slytherins led by Bellatrix Black burst out with an explanation of what had happened.  
  
"One at a time, one at a time" Viveridan said raising his hand "Please Professor" It was Bellatrix Black that had spoken "I saw the whole thing Sir" Lily doubted that very much, Bellatrix had sat at the front of the class with the rest of the Slytherins while all the Gryffindors where as far back in the class has they could get,  
  
"It was James Potter and my cousin Sirius Black that started the fight Professors, they just attack poor Severus without any reason, and then their friends" here Bellatrix dramatically turned and pointed at Lily, Frank and Remus "started to attack poor Antonin and Walden while Miriam Artemis helped"  
  
Lily gasped at this blatant lie the rest of the Gryffindors yelled in protest but McGonagall and Viveridan cut them off,  
  
"That will do!" Viveridan yelled the corner of his lips curling into an evil smile, Lily knew he must love this he hated the Gryffindors and particularly Miriam,  
  
"They should all be expelled sir" Bellatrix added smiling up at her head of house,  
  
"Thank you Miss Black but weather or not any or all of these pupils will be expelled is deemed by the headmaster and by myself"  
  
Expelled! Lily's stomach churned again she couldn't be expelled! Could she? She'd only been at Hogwarts for over a week and it wasn't like she'd done anything wrong, she had tried to help stop the fight!  
  
Lily wasn't left to ponder this thought for long before McGonagall continued  
  
"Mr Wilkes, you said you where closest please tell us what happened" Wilkes story was that he and Severus where quietly mixing their potion when for no reason at all James and Sirius had jump on him and Severus, but in Wilkes version of events he tried bravely to defended his friend from the attacks but was knocked out by Sirius and only came round when Professor Toll had entered the class room, Lily couldn't believe the lies the Slytherins told each one got worse and worse Evan Rosier and Rabastan Lestrange even said that they saw Lily, Miriam, Frank and Remus provoking a fight from MacNair and Dolohov and that the Gryffindors had took the opportunity of Tolls absence to incite the attacks and that MacNair and Dolohov where just innocent bystanders.  
  
Lily really couldn't believe how the Slytherins where able to create such lies. Finally it was the Gryffindors turn to tell the professors their version of the events. Lily was glad to see that every one in Gryffindor stayed as near to the reality of events as much as possible. Lily, Alice, Amy and Dymphna told McGonagall how they had stayed out of the fight and how Frank and Remus where trying to help defuse the situation and how Miriam had only been trying to stop MacNair from hitting Remus and how Lily had tried to stop MacNair from hitting Miriam.  
  
"Well?" McGonagall said turning to look at James and Sirius "Would you two like to tell us why you attacked Mr Snape and Wilkes?" James muttered something about Severus insulting him, From the way that James said this Lily guessed that he was lying but Sirius backed him up, McGonagall seemed to know that the boys had lied has her eyes flashed dangerously and her mouth if possible narrowed even more.  
  
"Very well if you believe that that was a necessary reason to do what you did then you must accept the punishment for your actions" McGonagall said sounding even more angrier then Lily had ever heard her before, "Fifty points each will be deducted from you for your behaviour and not only that but you will all serve a detention"  
  
"All?" Frank asked sounding unnaturally timid,  
  
"Yes Mr Longbottom, although you Mr's Lupin, MacNair, Dolohov, Miss Evans and Miss Artemis' intentions may have purely been to help your friends you nevertheless were involved in this fight and so will have to suffer the consequences of it!"  
  
Everyone turned to look at James and Sirius, Lily couldn't believe that she could possibly disliked them any more then she already did but now she knew that she had been very wrong, Sirius and James where becoming two people that Lily actually thought she would end up hating.  
  
"Detention!" Roared Amanda has the first years entered the common room, the class had been sent straight back to their common rooms without any dinner, mainly because they had been so long with the professors after the bell had rang that the evening meal had been over for an hour. When they had reached Gryffindor tower Amanda was already in hysterics trying to find out where the first years had gone to Amanda, who's voice was still hoarse raged at them when the first years climbed in thought the portrait hole, she demanded to know where they had been and when they had finally told her she couldn't believe it,  
  
"You what!" she said running her hands through her hair looking utterly mad,  
  
"We had to stay behind in potions because we'd been fighting" Peter repeated, Lily closed her eyes Amanda hadn't said 'what' because she hadn't understood what they had said she'd said it because she couldn't believe what they had told her, but obviously peter hadn't understood this.  
  
Amanda closed her eyes and breathed heavily, the entire common room was full again everyone was whispering excitedly anticipating the magnificent show which Amanda's rage always promised,  
  
"So let me understand this" Amanda said trying to sound calm "After all that I've told you over the past week, you still get yourself involved in a fight with the Slytherins?" here a few of the older students cheered, none of the Gryffindors really liked the Slytherins, "You've got yourselves detentions and you've lost Gryffindor one hundred points!" Amanda sighed and finally as Lily had expected Amanda's rage broke  
  
"DON'T YOU CARE WHAT YOU'VE DONE? DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE TO RECOUP THOUSE HUNDRED POINTS THAT YOU'VE LOST US!!!"  
  
"Well actually it's three hundred house points" said Richard Goodman the fifth year prefect,  
  
"What?" Amanda said spinning round to face him "three hundred, McGonagall wouldn't do that, would she?" Lily saw Amanda pale has the reality of what had happened struck, the other students in the common room fell silent and they all stared at the first years in disbelief,  
  
"Well" Richard continued sounding a little nervous now as all the Gryffindors eyes turned to look at him "McGonagall would probably have said something like they had to suffer the consequences of what they had done?" Lily guessed that Richard had experience of punishments from their head of house before, "Three hundred!" Amanda screamed collapsing onto the nearest chair "Three hundred house points!"  
  
"But we don't even have a hundred points yet" several voices said sounding very angry  
  
"Term only started last week!" others called in disbelief,  
  
"We'll never be able to make up for that loss even if we win the Quidditch cup!!!" cried Calvin Skinner the sixth year Quidditch captain, at this even more angry voices shouted at the first years,  
  
"How could they" Some cried "Don't they have any loyalty" even Mundungus Fletcher who was notorious for losing Gryffindor lots of points was now baying for the first years blood.  
  
"I think it would be best if you go to your dormitories" Gideon said to the first years looking around at the other students nervously has he shepherded them up to the dormitory stairs,  
  
"But what about Miriam" Lily asked,  
  
"Don't worry about her, just get to your rooms and stay there",  
  
"But-"  
  
"I'll find out for you" Gideon added as he pushed Lily onto the girls dormitory stairs  
  
"I'll let you know when I find out about her just keep your door locked!"  
  
Locked! Lily thought has Alice grabbed her arm and pulled her up the stairs towards their dormitory,  
  
"They wouldn't really do anything would they" Amy asked nervously has she looked back down the stairs towards the common room,  
  
"Of course they wouldn't" Alice said trying to laugh as though the whole thing had been a big joke, But if that was the case Lily thought then why was Alice still trying to hurry them all up the stairs? The girls could hear angry shouts from the common room and Gideon's voice trying to calm the other students,  
  
"Lets not wait around to find out" Dymphna said pulling on Amy's arm, the girls broke into a run, dashed into their room and bolted the door,  
  
"That's not going to last long!" Alice said pulling her wand out and pointing its tip at the doors lock and saying "Perennis Adhaero" the lock shimmered and glowed gold,  
  
"That's so cool" Dymphna said sitting down on her bed panting a little  
  
"It's the Everlasting seal" Alice said putting her wand away smiling "Dad uses it on his study door to keep me and James out"  
  
"Does it actually work?" Amy said eyeing the still glowing lock suspiciously,  
  
"Yes it does. Only the caster can break it" Alice said sounding a little hurt. The girls spent the next hour sitting on their beds talking about what had happened in potions class, the injustice of Lily, Frank, Remus and Miriam having points deducted and having to serve detentions, and the fact that Miriam was still missing. MacMikelmouse had been scratching at the dormitory door wanting to get out ever since the girls had started discussing Miriam's absences,  
  
"Do you think he knows something's wrong?" Amy asked picking the little kitten up,  
  
"Of course he does" Dymphna said her stomach rumbling "He can see she isn't here can't he",  
  
"I know but do you think that he knows she was injured" Amy said trying to restrain the little kitten as he struggled against her,  
  
"Well Kneazle's are supposed to get really attached to their owners" Alice said idly tapping her wand on her footboard,  
  
"Maybe we should let him out, you know to stretch his legs?" Amy said has she put Mac onto her bed where he cried loudly and dashed back to the door scratching it again.  
  
"I think he'll be better off in here then out there" Lily said voicing for the first time her concerns "I mean Gideon seemed to be really worried about our safety!"  
  
"I know but they wouldn't really do anything would they?" Amy's question was immediately answered by several of the older girls heading off to their dormitory above the first years. They banged loudly on the first years door and called out rude things and calling them traitors, the first time this happened it made the first years jump and scream in fright, but after the third group of older students did the same thing it became almost like a background noise.  
  
Lily lit the nearby candles and sighed she didn't know why he girls where still awake, they had nothing to stay up for it was almost half nine, most of the older students had gone to bed and it was obvious that Miriam wasn't going to be coming back to the dormitory tonight, even Mac had resided himself to this point, after he'd scratched the door and hissed at them to let him out he settled himself in front of the door his little head resting on his large font paws as his huge eyes looked at them all. Lily thought as she looked at the little kitten that it was a good job that looks couldn't kill because she was sure that with how Mac was looking at them all now with his lion like tail trashing against the stone floor they would have all been dead by now.  
  
Soon the girls mutually decided that they should all go to sleep and had just changed into their pyjamas and nightdresses, when a tapping was heard at the dormitory door,  
  
"Psss" said a voice "Gideon asked me to give you something, open up" It was the voice of Dorcas Meadows a fifth year prefect. At the noise from the stairwell Mac jumped up facing the door crying to be let out again and Alice slowly walked to the door pointing her wand at the lock and muttered "finite" the glowing stopped and Alice opened the door, struggling to hold Mac back  
  
"Gideon asked me to give you this" Dorcas said as she pushed the door wide and entered the dormitory, she placed a box on the nearest bed and turned to leave, she reach the doorway and turned on her heels "Gideon also asked me to tell you that your friend is going to be ok but it's best that she stays in the hospital wing tonight" Dorcas turned to leave,  
  
"What about Severus?" Lily called after her,  
  
"What? Oh the boy your friends beat up, don't worry about him Madam Pomfrey's the best healer there is" with that Dorcas left,  
  
"Oh no!" Alice squeaked as Mac broke free from her grasp and shot out of the dormitory Lily tried to chase after him but Dymphna held her back,  
  
"He'll be Ok Lily don't worry about him"  
  
"I didn't mean to let him get out" Alice said sadly has she closed the door and resealed it with the Everlasting seal charm, Lily put her arm around Alice and tried to cheer her up,  
  
"I bet he's gone hunting, he'll be back when he's had enough" Lily hoped she was right because she didn't want to tell Miriam that they'd lost her pet. But all thoughts of Miriam and Mac was pushed out of her mind as Dymphna opened the box that Gideon had sent them, It contained chocolate éclairs, faerie cakes Sandwiches and a flask of pumpkin juice, a note inside read:  
  
Thought you'd be hungry, just don't tell Amanda!!! Gideon  
  
Lily hadn't realised how hungry she actually was but at the sight of the food her stomach rumbled,  
  
"I love him so much!!!" Dymphna said ecstatically biting into an éclair. 


	12. The Daily Prophet

**Chapter 12: -** The Daily Prophet  
  
The following day the first years woke later then usual because Amanda didn't wake them, it seemed that after the fight she had completely given up on all them. At breakfast Lily didn't know weather this was a good thing or not, as Amanda sat at the opposite end of the Gryffindor table and all the other students gave them a wide berth, a few students passing the first years still called things out like "Traitors" and no one but Gideon rebuked them, eventually after a few fourth year boys had made some really rude comments Gideon moved over to sit with them. Lily knew that he had only done it to shield them from any more vicious actions and also out of pity, but even so Lily did appreciate his gesture. This seemed to make Dymphna very happy she wasn't going to forget Gideon's package of mercy in a hurry has she was talking to him throughout breakfast and thanking him profusely.  
  
Frank had sat next to Lily and Alice but no one but Dymphna and Gideon where talking, James and Sirius hung their heads and stirred their porridge miserably, Lily thought that she would have felt sorry for them if she hadn't felt really angry about what they had done to Severus and the fact that she and the others who had only tried to stop the fight from escalating had all got detention. Lily was torn from her thoughts by a voice from behind her,  
  
"Budge up!" said the voice, turning around Lily saw Miriam standing behind her smiling and apart from the fact that Miriam looked a little pale she looked otherwise fine. Lily grinned at Miriam has she made room for her at the table, Miriam sat down and pulled a small fur ball out of her pocket that was purring loudly,  
  
"Mac!!!" Lily called looking at the little kitten in amazement "Where did you find him?" but Miriam just laughed and stroked the kittens head and changed the subject,  
  
"I heard all about what happened" Miriam said feeding Mac some kippers, "So I see the rest of the house didn't take the points deduction very well" Miriam gestured to the rest of the Gryffindors that had separated themselves from the first years literally. There was a six foot gap at the table isolating the first years from the rest of the house.  
  
Lily didn't really want to talk about what had happened yesterday but when she tried to change the subject by asking Miriam why she had to spend the night in the hospital wing Miriam became very evasive and changed the subject to how Mac had got out of their dormitory. Lily didn't want to explain that ever and decided to ask Miriam how Severus was, as soon as the words had left her mouth Lily wished she hadn't asked,  
  
"Madam Pomfrey says he'll live" Miriam said angrily as she looked at James and Sirius "So you two can relax because you won't be going to Azkaban!"  
  
Lily didn't know what Azkaban was but what ever it was Lily knew by the reactions of the others that Miriam shouldn't have mentioned it, James and Sirius looked at Miriam as though she had just slapped them in the face, Dymphna gasped, Peter made his funny squeak which he always did when he was nervous or shocked, Alice looked as though she was struggling with indignation on behalf of her brother and from being impressed at her friend for having said what she had, Frank and Remus reacted angrily saying that Miriam had no right in saying what she had said but Lily was pleased to see that Amy was just as confused as she was.  
  
"Let's not pretend that none of you thought that last night" Miriam said making her voice heard above the continued protests of Frank and Remus "You two should be relived that Severus is conscious and that Madam Pomfrey's one of the best healers there is-"  
  
"Relieved" James burst out furiously cutting across Miriam "He's scum -"  
  
"Why do you hate him so much?" Miriam said cutting James off much to Lily's relief, she didn't want to hate James anymore then she did.  
  
"Why?" James said looking a little shocked at Miriam's question "Because his parents are dark wizards!" James said this as though it was the most obvious thing in the world  
  
"And what do you think his are? Sugar plum fairies!" Miriam yelled as she pointed at Sirius, who looked enraged,  
  
"You can talk," Sirius yelled back has he got to his feet "Your families darker then the night's sky!"  
  
"I've never said otherwise" Miriam said calmly her mouth curling into a sinister smile  
  
"That's enough!" Gideon said standing up, every student and teacher in the hall had turned to see why Miriam, James and Sirius where arguing "Haven't any of you learnt anything from what happened yesterday, you have to learn that the worlds not split into black and white and what's right and wrong. Some times life's bloody unfair but you have to learn how to deal with the cards that life's dealt you, there are people you have to live with weather you like them or not. Every Gryffindor dislikes the Slytherins it's been a mantra for hundreds of years but nothing, nothing like what you all did yesterday has ever happened before, it's one thing turning on someone you don't like just because their different but turning on each other isn't going to help!"  
  
Lily knew that Gideon's words had been wasted on the first years, it may have even been too late, Sirius was staring at Miriam as though he wanted to straggle her, James was looking at Sirius as though the fact that his parents where dark wizards was the worst thing that could have ever happened and Miriam was smiling even more at the rift she had created between the two friends, the other first years sat quietly not knowing what to do, and slowly Gideon sat down.  
  
"Why do you like him so much?" James asked bitterly under his breath so that Gideon couldn't hear,  
  
"Because he's never given me a reason not to" Miriam hissed back as she stroked Mac's head.  
  
Lily had the feeling that today was going to get even worse, and she was right. Gideon escorted the first years out into the grounds for their flying lesson where he left them standing a little way from the Slytherins; Mister Podmore as usual still hadn't arrived yet.  
  
All the Slytherins where huddled together talking excitedly, when they saw the Gryffindors they broke apart laughing and Bellatrix Black led them over to where the Gryffindors stood.  
  
"Well look here everyone it's the famous Miriam Artemis" Bellatrix said grinning as the Slytherins laughed, the Gryffindors just stared blankly oblivious to what the joke might be.  
  
"Your family have always been show offs haven't they Mi!" continued Bellatrix, "Tad's so intelligent he could run for minister of magic and Jed's the good looking sportsman, so where does that leave you?" Lily saw Miriam's cousin Eloise giggle but Miriam shot her a look and she immediately stopped and hid herself behind Dolohov,  
  
"Your family has always thought that they where better then us Blacks" Bellatrix said as she glared at Eloise "But Miriam really, selling yourself out, tut tut. What will your farther say?"  
  
"What are you jabbering on about Bella?" Miriam said angrily,  
  
"This-" Bellatrix pulled a rolled up magazine out of her robes and threw it to Miriam who unrolled it. Looking over Miriam's shoulder at the magazine Lily could see that it was called Witch weekly and the main image was of a smiling witch, different article descriptions where covering the witch as she smiled and fluttered her eye lashes,  
  
"I don't get it?" Miriam said shrugging,  
  
"You will" Bellatrix said grinning "turn to page 38" Lily watched Miriam flick through the pages until she came to the page Bellatrix had said, Lily's face dropped, the article was titled:  
  
A daring rescue at Hogwarts  
  
And below the title was a colour picture of Miriam with pigtails dressed in her Hogwarts uniform looking very sulky,  
  
A great act of heroism took place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry last Friday as Miss Miriam Artemis, the only daughter of the current heir of the ancient and noble Artemis family, sacrificed her own safety to rescue a fellow student from what could have ended in tragedy in a simple flying lesson.  
  
That was all that Lily managed to read before Miriam rolled the magazine up again. Bellatrix laughed and Lily even heard Sirius trying to stifle his own laughter,  
  
"Can I keep this?" Miriam said hiding her shocked expression, Miriam's words cut Bellatrix's laughing off,  
  
"W-What!" Bellatrix demanded apparently amazed at Miriam's words,  
  
"Can I keep it?" Miriam repeated smiling at the stunned look on Bellatrix's face "You know for the family scrap book. You see we Artemis' being so famous and influential have several different scrap books full of articles about us, or would my-" Miriam stopped opened the magazine and read from it "Close, personal friend and eyewitness Miss Bellatrix Black" Miriam rolled the magazine up again "Prefer to start your own family scrap book with this article, after all the Blacks never do get much of a chance to shine in the vast shadow cast by us Artemis's do they?"  
  
Lily had to laugh out loud at the putdown that Miriam had dished out, it was obvious that Bellatrix had hoped that the article that she had incited would have unsettled Miriam but even though Miriam had looked surprised to have seen it, Lily thought that she had recovered from it spectacularly. Bellatrix glared at Lily for laughing but Lily didn't care it was worth seeing Bellatrix humiliated and she and the rest of the Slytherins moved away from the Gryffindors, some of the Slytherins where even smirking.  
  
"You think that your families really something don't you" Sirius growled has Miriam turned round to face the rest of the Gryffindors,  
  
"Compared to your family Sirius they are something!" Miriam said storing the magazine in her bag.  
  
Sirius balled his fist in anger and Lily was sure that he would have retaliated if Mister Podmore hadn't appeared on the grounds at that moment.  
  
"Gather round, Gather round" Podmore called spreading his arms wide and beckoning the first years towards him,  
  
"Your going to pay for what you and James did to Severus" Lily heard Miriam say as she brushed past Sirius,  
  
"I'm so scared!" Sirius said holding up his hands and mocking being afraid of Miriam,  
  
"You should be Black, because you don't have your friends anymore" Lily heard Miriam say as she gestured toward James who had walked off towards Podmore with Peter. Sirius' face fell as he remembered how James had reacted at breakfast when Miriam had told everyone that Sirius' parents where dark wizards,  
  
"You had better watch out for yourself Miriam" Sirius said jabbing Miriam in the shoulder with a finger,  
  
"Don't worry about me Black, I'm an Artemis remember" Miriam said smiling  
  
"Yeah well this is one thing that an Artemis isn't going win!"  
  
"If you say so Black, if you say so" Miriam said laughing.  
  
Lily didn't like the sound of that, they where all in enough trouble as it was without starting a fight within their own house,  
  
"What is with those two?" Lily asked Alice but she just shrugged and said that she really didn't know. Lily wanted to settle this before it went to far and they were all expelled,  
  
"Miriam!" Lily called as she ran to catch up with her "Why can't you drop this stupid family rivalry between your family and the Blacks"  
  
"Stupid rivalry! That's what's between me and Bellatrix, but with Sirius it's now personal"  
  
"Personal! He's not done anything to you?"  
  
"Not directly no but he's not getting away with what he did to Severus-"  
  
"But he's not getting away with hurting Severus, we've all had points deducted because of that fight and we've all got to do a detention! I wouldn't call that getting away with anything!"  
  
"Lily" Miriam said putting her hand onto Lily's shoulder "I really value you has a friend and yes I do understand what your saying but unfortunately it's gone past reasoning" Miriam smiled reassuringly but Lily didn't get a chance to dissuade Miriam from what ever she may have been thinking has Podmore was calling for the girls to end their conversation and join the rest of the class.  
  
Miriam, much to her disappointment had been exempt from the flying lesson that day by Madam Pomfrey and so has Podmore got the class to practice their stands and hand positioning with the brooms, Miriam settled herself down on the grass a little way from the class and played with Mac and watched him pouncing on insects. Lily had completely forgotten that Miriam had put Mac back into her pocket after breakfast, when he had fallen asleep on the table and as Podmore corrected Amy's hand positioning Lily wounded what Miriam would have done if she was allowed to fly today, surely she wouldn't have kept him in her pocket. As the lesson progressed the first years where allowed to have a longer fly on the broom sticks, Lily waved at Miriam as she zoomed past her, but even the fact that she had been playing with Mac and that Mister Podmore had spent fifteen minutes of the class assuring Miriam that they were only going to practice basic things like turning and height control, Miriam didn't seem very happy that she was missing out on a potential chance to try and knock Sirius off his broom. 


	13. Pay Back

**Chapter 13:**- Pay back  
  
"I can't believe that we're sneaking into the boy's dormitory!" Amy Brown said later that night "what if we get caught?!"  
  
"Then obviously we'll lie" Miriam hissed over her shoulder. Lily still couldn't understand how Miriam had persuaded the girls to do this and even though Lily wanted to do be doing this she still couldn't help but think what if Amy was right what if they where caught?  
  
"But it's not like they ever did anything to you Mi?" Amy whispered for the third time. Lily heard Miriam sigh next to her and Lily knew why, Miriam had been over the reasoning behind her plan again and again with the girls before they had all decided to follow her.  
  
"That's not the point" Miriam said turning round to look at Amy "Severus is my oldest friend I've known him since I was born, and friends look out for one another"  
  
Lily had to agree with that, friends do look out for each other and although Miriam had insisted that they would be doing this purely to revenge Severus, Lily couldn't help but think that Miriam's motives wasn't entirely selfless. After dinner that evening Professor McGonagall had informed Lily, Miriam, Frank, Remus, Sirius and James that they would be serving their detentions that night, helping Filch the caretaker with his chores. Lily didn't mind the idea so much she was used to doing chores at home, just never on such a large scale as Hogwarts. James was still ignoring Sirius after the revelation that his parents were dark wizards but he did seem disappointed when he was told he wasn't going to be working with Sirius. Instead he was assigned with Antonio Dolohov and Walden MacNair who had also received detention for the fight.  
  
James, Dolohov and MacNair where sent to clean all the trophies and cups in the trophy room while Lily and Frank had to scrub the floor in the entrance hall, Miriam's brother Jedidiah and his best friend Ludovic Bagman where also serving detention that night for hitting MacNair after they had found out that he had almost hit Miriam, MacNair much to Lily's pleasure was sporting a really nice black eye, which Miriam joked about saying it greatly improved his looks.  
  
At eight o'clock all the first years where waiting in the entrance for Filch to arrive and assign them tasks, but Jedidiah and Ludo immediately started work before Filch even arrived. The fourth years grabbed a mop and bucket from a nearby cupboard saying that they already knew the drill and that they'd be cleaning the great hall if Filch asked where they where, they headed off reminiscing about all the different tasks they had been made to do in the past. Miriam, Remus and Sirius where set the task of cleaning all the cauldrons in the potions class rooms with their bare hands, None of the students where to use magic, not that Lily knew any that could have helped her scrubbing the floors, but it seemed that Filch took a lot of pleasure in seeing the students struggle has his horrid skeletal cat stood at the foot of the marble staircase glaring at Lily.  
  
Has soon as Filch had insisted that Miriam and Sirius where to work together Lily knew something bad would happen but as soon as Remus was told to help the pair Lily was able to breath a sigh of relief, Lily knew that Remus' presence would discourage the pair from bludgeoning each other over the head with a heavy cauldron, Although Remus did tell Lily after detention has they all slowly climbed the stairs back to Gryffindor tower well after midnight that it didn't stop them from trying!  
  
Miriam had looked shattered after the detention she obviously wasn't made to do chores when she was at home but she hadn't complained has the girls entered their dormitory. Lily who had felt as bad as Miriam looked was extremely glad to see that Alice, Amy and Dymphna hadn't gone to bed but where waiting up for them to hear all about the terrible work which they had been forced to do.  
  
But now has she climbed the stairs towards the boys dormitories with the rest of the first year girls Lily half wished that Alice, Amy and Dymphna hadn't stayed up to wait for them, and although it had originally been Amy's idea to somehow get back at Sirius and James for landing Lily, Miriam, Frank and Remus in detention Lily knew that Amy would never had carried the thought out. Unfortunately unlike Amy, Miriam had welcomed the whole idea of a revenge tactic and after a few minutes she already had a well formed plan of attack.  
  
"If they had done anything to any of you I'd still be doing this," Lily heard Miriam hiss over her shoulder again as the girls slowly climbed the dimly lit spiral staircase towards the boys dormitories "you don't have to come along, no ones making you!"  
  
"I'll stay thanks" Amy mumbled, Lily knew that Amy would never have waited in their own dormitory as the others went off to fulfil Miriam's harebrained idea, Amy may not have been brave enough to have followed through with the retaliation plan on her own but she was determined enough to help the others.  
  
"Shush!" Whispered Dymphna as they approached a door halfway up the stairwell the door had a plaque on it exactly like the one on the girls own dormitory door and like their own plaque this too was labelled 'First years'. The boys' dormitory was situated in the exact location has the girls' fourth door up the stairs with three other dormitories above where the second third and fourth years slept.  
  
"Right" said Miriam looking at her wrist watch "Its One forty-five exactly, if all goes well we should all be out of there at One fifty-five, you all know what to do don't you?" Lily, Alice, Amy and Dymphna nodded all of them grinning happily and Alice patted her satchel which she had brought with her.  
  
'Miriam's mischievous streak was spreading!' Lily thought as she looked at the others, ordinarily Lily stuck to rules and she was surprised to see how much of an influence Miriam had actually made on her and the others.  
  
"Ready?" Miriam asked smiling mischievously and her eyes seemed to gleam in the light cast by the torches, the girls nodded and Miriam turned stretching out her hand to the brass door knob and turned it, slowly pushing the door open an inch or two so she could see inside before she opened it fully.  
  
The boys' room was completely dark inside; obviously none of them had stayed up until one o'clock in the morning discussing revenge tactics. After the girls eyes had adjusted to the dark of the room they entered, hearing the soft noise of someone snoring in the nearby bed. Lily was glad to see that the boys bedroom was slightly smaller then the girls but other then that it was exactly the same,  
  
"Which one do you think are James and Sirius" Dymphna whispered looking at the five four poster beds each had their hangings pulled around obscuring the occupant from view,  
  
"James doesn't snore" Alice said softly "so he's not that one" she pointed to the bed next to them,  
  
"No but it could be Sirius" Amy said tiptoeing over to the bed, but Lily stopped her by holding her hand out in front of her,  
  
"What!" Amy hissed and Lily pointed to the trunk on the floor at the foot of the bed it read P.P.  
  
"Obviously it's Peter who snores" Lily said and she could just make out Miriam smiling in the dark, impressed that Lily had remembered that all Hogwarts student were required to have all their trunks initialled and named to make easy work for the elves at the start of each year to find which house and dormitory a student stayed in.  
  
Lily followed Miriam over to the bed on the far side of the circular room where the trunk at the foot of the four poster was initialled J.P  
  
"He looks so peaceful" Lily said as Miriam slowly pulled back the drapes to look at James, at Lily's words Miriam turned to face her,  
  
"Do you fancy him?" Miriam said in disgust still trying to keep her voice low,  
  
"No!!!" Lily said shocked trying to force a laugh, "Of course I don't fancy him he's horrid"  
  
"Too right" Alice said standing next to Lily "he's an ugly git!" Lily had meant that James had a horrid personality, the things that he did where awful like beating up Severus and falling out with Sirius just because his parents were dark wizards, Lily actually thought that James was quite good looking but she'd never let the others know that.  
  
"Right" Miriam said taking the bag from Alice "Let's get to work!"  
  
"How do you even know that this is even going to work?" Lily asked as she used a nearby water jug to fill a glass that Miriam gave her which she had asked Alice to but into her bag,  
  
"Because I've got two older brothers that are constantly pulling pranks like this on each other" Miriam whispered as she pointed her wand at the glass now full of water and muttered "Egelidus",  
  
Lily took the glass back and was amazed to feel that it and the water inside was now warm,  
  
"Who used this one" Lily whispered as she moved over to the still sleeping James and put his hand into the warm glass of water, Miriam had already told the girls what they had to do and what exactly this would do to James and Sirius, Lily thought that the idea was pretty mean but then again James and Sirius had been pretty mean to Severus.  
  
"Tad used it, he's the subtle intelligent one remember" Lily heard Miriam say flashing Lily a smile, Lily wished that she had an older brother or any other sibling for that matter, Petunia was ok but she was never much fun to be around she was always too serious and every time Miriam talked about one of her brothers Lily couldn't help but feel a little jealous.  
  
"Poor Jedidiah" Lily heard Alice say bringing Lily back to the present, Alice was smiling as she helped Amy perform the heating charm on another glass of water and then placed Sirius' hand into it.  
  
"Now for the finishing touches," Miriam said herding the girls out of the room; Miriam closed the boys' dormitory door leaving a few inches gap. Lily watched as Miriam pointed her wand up at the top of the doors frame  
  
"Aqua Fonticulus" she muttered and a wisp of blue smoke shot out of the end of her wand and formed itself into a bucket of water perched on the top of the door,  
  
"I guess that the bucket of water is Jed's little trick" Alice said smiling, as they headed up the stairwell, Miriam wanted to see how her plan would work out.  
  
"How long will we have to wait?" Dymphna said but the words had hardly left her mouth when there was a cry from the boys' dormitory that sounded a lot like James Potter,  
  
"Oh no," they heard James say,  
  
"Oh Merlin!" the girls heard Sirius' voice say in a slight panic,  
  
"How- How embarrassing!" both James and Sirius said together the girls sniggered trying to suppress any noise that might give away their location by forcing their hands over their mouths.  
  
"What's going on?" they heard Remus and Frank ask sleepily,  
  
"Nothing! Just go back to sleep" the girls heard James snap and the next second there was a loud clatter and banging as the dormitory door had been opened and Miriam's water bucket had hit it's target. The girls couldn't suppress their laughter anymore and they all burst out laughing,  
  
"What's going on out there" Frank called as James fell out into the stairwell with the bucket still on his head,  
  
"Run!" Miriam said urging the girls forwards, someone in the boys dormitory had lit the candles and as the girls jumped over James' sprawled wet body in the stairwell, Lily could see Sirius standing in the centre of the room his bed sheets wrapped around his lower torso and legs, his face flushing red with embracement as Remus, Frank and Peter stood looking at him with a look of slight disgust on their faces.  
  
The girls couldn't stop laughing and it didn't really matter that James had now removed the bucket from his head and had seen them, because has Miriam had explained James and Sirius where bound to work out that it had been the girls who had pranked them anyway.  
  
"You should have locked your door!" Alice called up the stairwell has James called her a rude name which added to her amusement,  
  
"What's going on" called the voice of Gideon has he and his fellow sixth years came out onto the stairwell to see what the commotion was, Lily and Miriam pushed the door to the boys dormitory stairwell closed and both grabbed hold of Alice,  
  
"Come on!" Lily called pulling Alice who was still laughing towards the girls dormitory stairs "They'll be after us soon" Lily didn't really want to be proved right but she could hear the clatter of Miriam's bucket as it rolled down the stairs and the voices of the older boys has they where woken from their sleep.  
  
The girls had reached the doorway of their dormitory as James had flung open the door at the bottom off the stairwell  
  
"Quickly!" Miriam cried grabbing hold of Lily's arm and pulling her onto the stone plinth outside their dormitory door,  
  
"What did you do that for?" Lily asked rubbing her arm where Miriam had grabbed her, Alice, Amy and Dymphna where beckoning Miriam and Lily into the room wanting to close the door and lock themselves into their room before James could get to them but Miriam didn't seem to show the faintest inkling of retreating into the dormitory, Lily turned to see James running up the stairs,  
  
"Quickly inside!" Alice called holding the door open, but she needn't have bothered, Lily couldn't believe what she was watching James had only got as far as the fifth step when a loud Klaxon sounded the dim torches that lit the stairwell flared brilliantly, illuminating the stairs and then suddenly Lily heard the most strangest sound, like stone grinding on stone and she heard James yell; the stairs had shifted into a smooth stone slide and James was no longer running up any stairs but had stumbled and crashed against the stone slide and slid to the bottom of the stairwell and vanished from Lily's view as he slid into the common room.  
  
"What was that?" Lily asked amazed as she and Miriam entered their dormitory and closed the door.  
  
"It's a kind of magical protection charm" Miriam said smiling "Tad and Jed call it the early warning chastity spell; all the entrances to the girls dorms have them. Sorry I pulled you so hard," Miriam added looking at Lily's arm which Lily realised she was still rubbing "I just thought it wouldn't be a good idea for you to be out on the stairs when it happened!"  
  
After assuring Miriam that she would live, the girls rejoiced in the havoc that they had created, the Klaxon was still sounding and all of the other girls in the other years where out of bed demanding to know what was going on. The noise that James had made in the boys dormitory stairwell meant that many of the boys where up and about complaining and after a few minutes Lily and Miriam braved a quick glance out of their doorway to hear Professor McGonagall's angry voice down in the common room.  
  
Despite the constant noise of the klaxon which apparently no one knew how to switch off and the noise of the other students the first year girls sleep quite peacefully each wearing a smile on their faces knowing that not only had they avenged Severus' beating and the unfair detentions that Lily and Miriam had received but that they also had managed to get one over on Sirius and James, and as an added bonus Prefect Amanda Hugh-Genghis had been the first girl to step out onto the stairwell to investigate the sound of the klaxon when it had gone off and not realising that the steps had changed she had fell and slid down the slide and straight into James at the bottom of the stairs in the common room. 


	14. The war begins

**Chapter 14: -** The war begins  
  
The following day the first year girls and Frank where using their Sunday afternoon to finish their homework for History of magic and Defence against the dark arts in the library. They had all decided that it would be a better idea to use the library then the Gryffindor common room as Amanda was still in a rage about the night before. The chaos that the girls had created was still being talked about and Lily suspected that it would be for several days. Professor McGonagall much to Lily's secret delight had given James another detention for disturbing the other students in the middle of the night, Sirius was even angrier at Miriam because there was now a rumour spreading around all the Gryffindor students that he wets the bed, and Peter following Remus' lead both refused to talk to any of the girls saying that it was a nasty cheap prank and that they shouldn't have done it.  
  
Frank on the other hand had loved it but he only admitted it to Lily when he was sure that they where alone in the library. Miriam and Alice had gone off in search of a book they could use for their essay on 'The influences on twentieth century magic' while Amy and Dymphna was trying to persuade Madam Pince to allow them to borrow a few books.  
  
Lily was watching Frank dipping his quill into her inkwell and then poised his hand over his clean parchment when a rush of feet made him jump and a large glob of black ink fell from the quills nib splattering his parchment,  
  
"Great!!!" Frank whispered angrily, turning around Lily could see that the person who had rushed over to them was Alice,  
  
"What's wrong?" Frank said immediately getting to his feet and rushing over to her,  
  
"Miriam said you've both got to come quickly!" Alice said almost breathless, Lily and Frank followed Alice back the way she had come and they weaved in and out of the shelving into different aisle and categories,  
  
"Just up there!" Alice said pointing in front of her,  
  
"What where you and Miriam doing in this aisle" Lily asked looking at the books on the shelves all of them where to do with hexes, curses and jinxing, Lily didn't really need to ask Alice to know why Miriam had been in this aisle and not the history aisle.  
  
They turned a corner and Lily could see Miriam standing close to the shelving in front of them, Miriam saw them coming and held a finger to her lips signalling them to be quiet, slowly trying not to make any noise Lily, Alice and Frank moved down the aisle towards Miriam, the reason why Miriam was leaning so close to the shelving, her head almost resting on the selves was immediately apparent has Lily, Alice and Frank moved closer to Miriam. Lily could hear Sirius Black's voice from the other side of the shelving, and by removing a thick volume of 'Ye olde curses' she, Alice and Frank where able to see them just like Miriam.  
  
Sirius was standing at the end of one of the study tables, Remus like always had a huge pile of books in front of him, James was lounging with his feet on the table and Peter was perched on the edge of his chair looking from one boy to the other.  
  
"Their just girls!" Sirius said, looking obviously hacked off.  
  
"FIVE of them!!!" squeaked Peter "Against the four of us!"  
  
"There's no contest" James said rubbing his hand over his chin as his face spread into a grin "We'll trounce them!"  
  
"But there's more of them!" Peter squeaked trying to express his concern  
  
"We need to think of something good, something that they wouldn't expect" Sirius continued, ignoring Peter,  
  
"Failing that I'll settle for a really good jelly legs or bat bogie hex" James said twirling his wand around his fingers  
  
"Yeah" they heard Sirius agree,  
  
"Well ladies and gentlemen let the war begin!" Lily heard Miriam mutter.  
  
"WAR!!!" Lily tried to shriek while still trying to whisper so it came out more like she was being strangled,  
  
"Shss!" Miriam hissed dashing forwards in alarm covering Lily's mouth with her hand as she peered through the gaps in the books to see if Lily's outburst had disturbed the boys, it apparently hadn't because Miriam removed her hand from Lily's mouth smiling.  
  
"War!" Lily whispered again trying to keep her voice low, but it was so hard to do so when she felt so enraged at her friend "Mi we're eleven years old and you're not an insane General commanding a mass of troops into battle!"  
  
"Well I don't know about the insane part given the fact she's an Artemis," Frank said quietly trying not to laugh "But Lily's got a point Mi"  
  
"Of course she's got a point" Miriam said smiling he face alight with mischief  
  
"Please Mi" Lily said before Miriam could say anything else "Please put an end to this before it goes too far! You've gotten what you wanted, pulling one over on Sirius and James for what they did to Severus. Please stop this before it goes too far!" Miriam hung her head slightly looking slightly ashamed,  
  
"Your right Lily, I know you are" Miriam sighed raising her head "Very well I'll stop it, we can live a nice normal boring school life of homework and Hug-and-Kiss bossing us around until she leaves at the end of the June after next!" she forced a smile,  
  
"Thank you" Lily said patting Miriam on the arm and smiling too, she couldn't believe that it had worked that she had managed to persuade Miriam out off this ridiculous interyear rivalry between to the girls and boys. They turned and headed back to the table where they had left their homework,  
  
"But I will have to retaliate if they do" Lily heard Miriam whisper behind her. Lily couldn't even be bothered to shake her head as Alice and Frank both smiled at Miriam, how could Lily have really thought that she'd gotten through to Miriam she was so bull-headed!  
  
The 'War', was put on an unofficial ceasefire over the next few weeks has the first years were given more and more work, they spent most of their free evenings in the library in front of mounds and mounds of books. It annoyed Lily at how little Miriam would have to do to get the top grades in all of her classes, in history of magic Miriam always wrote the best essays without the use of any books, Remus Lupin was a very close second but it was obvious that he had used books as he was always found behind a large pile of books every evening in the common room.  
  
But it wasn't just history of magic that Miriam was good at she excelled in all the lessons that the first years were taking, Lily often wondered if Miriam's eldest brother Thaddeus knew how intelligent his little sister was. And although Lily was slightly jealous of Miriam's talents Miriam had never once bragged about how well she was doing, but Lily wasn't doing too badly on the grade front either. All the Gryffindors where getting really good marks even Peter Pettigrew although Lily knew for a fact that the rest of the first year boys helped him with his homework and she had even seen Peter asking Miriam if he could copy her defence against the dark arts essay which to Lily's surprise Miriam had done, saying that it would be his own fault if Professor Viveridan found out.  
  
October arrived bringing extremely cold winds and promising that soon there was too be snow, one Tuesday evening all the first years except Miriam where again sitting in the common room behind a pile of books and low burning candles and sheets of parchment. It was well after midnight and apart from the first years the common room was empty,  
  
"I can't find him!" Miriam said sounding a little alarmed as she entered the common room from the girls dormitory,  
  
"What?" Lily asked lifting her head up from her essay on astronomy which was due in the next day,  
  
"Mac!" Miriam said becoming more worried "I've looked all over the tower and I can't find him!" Lily heard Sirius snigger,  
  
"What have you done Black?!?" Miriam demanded, she had obviously heard him too,  
  
"It's not nice to have someone pull a trick on you is it?" James said,  
  
"What did you two do?" Frank and Remus said in unison, Remus looked very pale,  
  
"Well he looked so lonely this morning" James said smiling as he stared at Miriam "And you've not had much time to play with the poor thing with all this work we've had to do"  
  
"So we thought that Mrs Norris would like a friend" Sirius said smiling wickedly,  
  
"You did what?!?" Miriam said her eyes widening in disbelief,  
  
"How could you!" Lily squealed "He's only a baby, that monster will kill him!"  
  
"You didn't?" Frank and Remus both asked in alarm,  
  
"Where did you put him Black?" Miriam demanded pulling her wand out of her robes, "Where is he?"  
  
"Don't like it when the shoes on the other foot do you Mi!" Sirius said still smiling,  
  
"You're sick you do know that don't you!?!" Alice said looking from Sirius to her brother "How could you!"  
  
"Fine!!!" James said "I'm not having you all thinking that Sirius and me are heartless thugs, we did after all put him in a very safe place,"  
  
"Yeah don't worry about the fur ball Filch will probably find him before Mrs Norris does! After all he always checks this place first when he does his rounds"  
  
"What!" Lily heard Miriam gasp behind her,  
  
"Besides Filch loves cats, he has too, to like that thing he's got for a pet!" Sirius said laughing,  
  
"If anything as happened to him!" Miriam yelled "I'll kill you Black I mean that, I really will kill you!" with that Miriam ran towards the portrait hole,  
  
"Miriam!!!" Lily, Alice, Frank and Remus called after her, Lily pushed her chair back and dashed off across the common room followed by Alice and Frank, they reach the fat lady's portrait before it closed and they pushed it open again and climbed through the opening into the corridor,  
  
"What are you all doing out of bed at this time of night" The fat lady said upon seeing them, but they just ignored her,  
  
"Miriam!" Lily said running down the corridor after her and grabbing Miriam's arm "What are you doing? We can't go running around the castle in the middle of the night we'll get caught!"  
  
"We'll be given detention and more points will be deducted, and we still haven't got any!" Alice said as she and Frank caught up with them.  
  
"I don't give a damn about house points or detentions! I want Mac back and I'm going to find him, let go!" Miriam said this last part to Lily as she pulled her arm free from Lily's grasp, "If you three are so bothered about the rules then bugger off back to the common room, I'm off to find Mac!"  
  
"That's below the belt" Frank said shaking his head "How can you even say that? Those two-" He looked at Lily and Alice "-where also involved in that prank you guys pulled on James and Sirius, their immune to rules just like you!"  
  
Lily knew exactly what Frank was doing and he was completely right, they'd all broken the rules before just because they had wanted to prank the boys so why when Mac's life was in danger and their friend was in such obvious distress was she and Alice resisting now,  
  
"Mi I'm sorry" Lily said "We'll help you look for Mac" Miriam smiled and hugged Lily,  
  
"Thank you" she said her eyes slightly damp as though at any moment she was going to burst into tears.  
  
'If anything happened to Mac before they found him' Lily thought 'She would help Miriam kill James and Sirius'.  
  
Miriam had deduced from what the boys had said that the place they had hidden Mac was the trophy room, this was the place where Filch always started his rounds each night and was always the first place where he sent students on detention. It was very cold in the castle at night and Lily was beginning to wish she had changed into warmer clothes before they had come out, a scarf and gloves wouldn't have gone a miss in the freezing corridors, but as Lily listened to the chattering of Franks teeth she had a sickening feeling in her stomach that they probably wouldn't find the little kitten alive.  
  
The four of them finally entered the trophy room, and although every student and teacher called it a room it was more like a very long corridor, on each side of the walls there where dozens of glass fronted cabinets, the walls where covered in plaques and moving pictures. Lily had never been in here before and neither had the others, the windows in the trophy room was very small and emitted hardly any light and the torches in the brackets on the walls where burning very low.  
  
"Where do you think they would have put him?" Lily said keeping her voice in a whisper, Frank and Alice shrugged telling Lily that they had no idea what James and Sirius would have done,.  
  
"Listen!" Miriam hissed, Lily could hear it too now that they where all standing still,  
  
"What is it?" Alice asked moving closer to Frank, the noise was a sort of soft scratching sound but Lily didn't think that it sounded like a noise made by a kitten,  
  
"Mac!" Miriam hissed moving forwards, "Mac!"  
  
Lily wanted to grab Miriam and tell her to be quiet, the trophy room was very ghostly after dark and Lily could have sworn that the suits of Armour that where next to the cabinets turned their heads to follow the small group as they moved through the room.  
  
The noise started to get louder and louder the closer they came and even Miriam had resided to the fact that MacMikelmouse wasn't making the noise. Miriam who had been leading the group suddenly stopped her arms held out to halt the others,  
  
"What's the mat-" Frank began but he stopped as soon as he saw the reason Miriam had halted their progress, at the foot of a suit of armour half hidden by the armours shadow was a figure crouching low it's back facing them, the noise was being made by the person as he scraped something up and down the back of the armours feet where it joined the plinth. Lily was just about to suggest that they shouldn't hang around for this strange person to see them, when it was already too late, the person at the Suit of armour turned its head, facing them. 


	15. Lost

**Chapter 15: -** Lost  
  
"RUN!" Frank yelled grabbing hold of Miriam and Alice's hands and pulling them back the way they had come, Lily pelted behind after them,  
  
"QUICKLY!!!" Frank yelled has he still pulled the girls,  
  
"Who was it?" Lily asked turning her head to look behind them as the suit of armour collapsed with a huge clatter and bang onto the stone floor,  
  
"Who cares!!!" Frank yelled over his shoulder at Lily "Let's just get out of here!"  
  
"What about Mac!" Miriam cried pulling hard on Frank's clenched hand around her wrist trying to brake free as she pulled backwards,  
  
"I'll buy you a bloody new cat!!!" Frank yelled at Miriam pulling hard on her wrist and yanking her forwards,  
  
"MAC!!!" Miriam yelled still trying to get free from Frank so she could find her pet "MAC! WHERE ARE YOU?!"  
  
"He's not here Mi!" Lily cried realising that she had spoken the truth as she grabbed hold of Miriam's arm and helped to pull her forwards with Frank who still had hold of Alice's hand.  
  
"The boys tricked us Mi. They said that it's not funny having a prank pulled on you and their Bloody right!!" Lily yelled her heart beating so fast that she though it would burst.  
  
"Who was that?" Alice asked repeating Lily's previous question, but this time Frank didn't get the chance to yell "shut up and just run!" he had skidded to a halt trying to hold the girls back with his arms out, but they where all moving too fast and Lily was still struggling against Miriam. The girls crashed into Frank and they all tripped and fell to the ground, Lily banging her head against Miriam's as she fell.  
  
"What did you stop for?" Lily asked furiously rubbing her head as she pulled herself free from the mass of bodies, legs and arms that where Alice, Frank and Miriam. looking towards Frank who had pulled himself free from them and was staring down the hall Lily could see the reason why Frank had stopped so quickly, in front of them crossed legged and armed floating upside down was the figure that had been at the suite of armour: it was Peeves the poltergeist.  
  
"Well, well, well" he said cackling to himself "What have we here? Is it a big black spider or 'ikle firsty" Peeves pretended to think for a second rubbing his chin and then he smiled at them, his smile was even more mischievous then Miriam's and Lily knew that what ever Peeves was going to say next couldn't be any good for them,  
  
"Seeing that all students are supposed to be safely tucked up in bed, it must be a huge big black spidy. Peeves is to be good this term, promised professor Dumbledore that I would. So I must really help out around the castle. Peeves'll get rid of nasty spider for nice Mr Filch" he grinned even wider and in the split second that it took Lily, Miriam, Frank and Alice to understand what Peeves had meant the poltergeist had whizzed over to the wall and started pulling the plaques and photos off it and throwing them at the first years,  
  
"BLOODY HELL!!!" Frank yelled clutching his face as a black and white photograph of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team of 1901 hit Frank in the face and the edge of the frame cut his cheek, Alice screamed as a plaque proclaiming Marcus Goodlowe and Edith Parkinson where head boy and girl in 1859 hit her on top of her head.  
  
"Run!" Lily cried getting to her feet and pulling Miriam with her, the four friends hurtled down the corridor in a barrage of trophies, plaques and photos as Peeves sang 'Itsy bitsy spider' in a horrid baby voice.  
  
The suit of armour that they had first seen peeves at was now sprawled across the floor, Lily, Miriam and Alice had only just seen it in the dark hallway in time to jump over it but Frank who was still holding a hand to his cut cheek didn't see it in time and fell clattering to the floor, the armours legs and arms skidding across the stones.  
  
"Frank!" Alice yelled as she Lily and Miriam doubled back to help him,  
  
"Don't bother about me just RUN!" Frank called pulling the Armours helmet off his foot  
  
"Don't be so bloody heroic!" Miriam said running back to him and helping him to his feet, as Peeves threw a silver plated Gobstone champions of 1763 cup at them which hit Frank on the back of his head and he collapsed to the floor Lily and Alice screamed and ran to help him,  
  
"Stop it!" Miriam yelled has she crouched next to Frank looking up at Peeves "Just stop it now!"  
  
"And what does the 'ikle firsty think that she's goin-" but Peeves stopped suddenly looking at Miriam has he held another trophy in his hands, Lily had never seen Peeves behave like this before, all students and even some teachers where just objects for peeves to play with and torment, but at this moment his eyes were widening and he looked almost in shock as he stared at Miriam,  
  
"It's, it's the little Miss", he said almost grovelling "please forgive us little Miss Artemis please, please I- I didn't know it was you Miss please forgive me."  
  
Miriam looked as confused as Lily and the others, what could have caused the sudden change in Peeves none of them knew, but Miriam was quick enough to realise an opportunity when it presented it's self,  
  
"Be gone from here" Miriam said still crouching next to Frank "And leave me and my friends alone!"  
  
"As the good Miss wishes," Peeves said bowing low "I also beg you to please not to tell the baron about my mistake, I did not know it was you"  
  
"The Baron?" Lily whispered to Miriam,  
  
"The Bloody Baron's the ghost of Slytherin house he's also my Great- great- great- great- great-Grandfather or something!" Miriam hissed back still keeping her eyes on Peeves as he bowed even lower and taking his bowler hat off and placing it across his chest, he bowed so low that Lily could see that he had a bold patch,  
  
"He must be scared of the baron!" Miriam continued,  
  
"I'd be scared of your Great- great-what ever granddad as well" Frank said regaining conciseness, Lily saw Miriam smile at him and then from the other end of the corridor they heard footsteps moving closer and a voice called out from the shadows,  
  
"That's right my beauty, sniff them out, smell them" It was Filch and a new horror gripped Lily's insides, how could she not have thought that the noise they and Peeves where making wouldn't have attracted the caretaker and he had brought his horrid cat Mrs Norris with him as well.  
  
"Get him over to the door" Miriam said drawing Lily and Alice's attention back to immediate dangers, Lily and Alice quickly helped Frank to his feet,  
  
"What about you?" Alice asked Miriam as she turned back to face Peeves who was grinning quite happily at the destruction he had created,  
  
"Go!" Miriam hissed at them and very reluctantly Lily and Alice heaved the still slightly dazed Frank down the corridor towards the door has quickly as they could, Lily could hear Miriam's voice behind her but it was too low for her to make out any words.  
  
Lily, Frank and Alice had reached the door when there was a loud crash and the sound of braking glass from behind them, the three friends looked at each other and then back down the way they had come Lily wanted to shout and run to find Miriam but as soon as the thought had came into her mind it was pushed away with a wave of relief, out of the gloom Miriam was running towards them with a very broad smile on her face.  
  
"Quickly!" She said pulling the door open, "We don't want to be around when Filch gets down here"  
  
"PEEEEEVVVVVSSSS!!!!" Screamed Filch and Frank laughed  
  
"What did you do?" he asked as they all headed through the door and down the corridor beyond,  
  
"Me!" Miriam said faking her innocence "I didn't do a thing it was Peeves that did all the dirty work" Lily, Alice and Frank exchanged impressed looks and grinned at Miriam, as they ran down the corridor,  
  
"What are we going to do now" Lily asked Miriam a little nervously,  
  
"Well you where right he's not in the trophy room, Peeves said he had been in there all night working on that suit of arms and he hadn't seen anyone" Lily was impressed at how Miriam had managed to get this information from the Poltergeist and still managed to persuaded him to hold Filch back why they had made their escape.  
  
"So what are we doing then" Frank said rubbing the back of his head "Heading back to the common room?" Miriam nodded  
  
"I'll make Black tell me what he did with Mac if I have too" she said furiously and Lily couldn't really blame her. The friends walked down the corridor, turned left and climbed the stairs and turned left again,  
  
"Guys," Alice said looking around "I don't think that this is the way to the tower room" the others stopped and looked around them, Alice was absolutely right, but where were they? Lily had never been down this corridor before, but seeing as though the first years had only been at Hogwarts for just over a month it wasn't surprising that they didn't fully know their way around.  
  
"Isn't there a gargoyle on the fourth floor that's a bird?" Miriam said pointing towards a large stone statue set in a recess a little way from them,  
  
"Yeah, it's an eagle but this looks more like a Griffin, see" Frank said pointing at the statues feet, "Look it's got paws as well a claws!"  
  
"Ok lets admit it we're lost!" Lily said "why don't we head back the way we came and try to locate our way to the tower from there"  
  
"We can't head back" Miriam said plainly "Filch is back there remember,"  
  
"So we'll just have to go along here then" Alice said pointing down the corridor in front of them,  
  
"Or we send up rescue flairs and hope for the best!" Frank said but the girls just ignored him and they headed off down the corridor in quite, after a while the silence was broken by Frank,  
  
"If it comes to the worst and we have to eat someone I vote for Mi" he said grinning  
  
"Hay!" Miriam said in protest "why me?"  
  
"For two reasons manly" Frank said starting off on a rant "Firstly you look very tender and extremely meaty"  
  
"I don't like how this is heading" Alice said playfully "You've thought way too much about this Frank,"  
  
"It may have crossed my mind on several occasions-"  
  
"Like?" Lily asked not wanting to be left out,  
  
"In Binns' History of magic class. You three sit right in front of me and it's all I can really think about. That and irrespirable urge to-"  
  
"I don't think I really want to hear anymore!" Miriam said clamping her hands onto her ears, but Frank continued regardless  
  
"The urge to throw ink pellets at you all"  
  
"Thanks!" Lily said acting hurt "and you're supposed to be our friend!"  
  
"Oh I am" Frank said smiling "But only when it suits me!" the girls smiled and Frank continued "Anyway the second reason I'd eat Mi first is because she got us into this mess"  
  
"And pray tell what mess is that Mr Longbottom?" The four friends stopped instantly almost banging into Miriam who had been leading them, Lily was sure her heart had stopped beating as in unison she, Alice, Miriam and Frank slowly turned around to see who the voice belonged to.  
  
Towering over the first years dressed in a purple dressing gown and matching purple slippers, a night cap on his head and a white nightshirt showing below his dressing gown was Professor Albus Dumbledore: The Headmaster.  
  
'This is it,' Lily thought 'This is the last time she'd ever be able to walk down this corridor and talk to these friends, this would be the last night she was a witch,' Lily knew that soon she was to be expelled. And for the first time since she had found out about Hogwarts Lily knew that this was the place she belonged. This was her new home, her new life was to be with these people that she had met and befriended and now it was all gone! 


	16. Guilt tripping and the furthering of the...

**Chapter 16: -** Guilt tripping and the furthering of the divide  
  
There was no way that any of them even Miriam could talk their way out of this Dumbledore had expressed his feelings on the subject of the curfews at the start of term feast, but instead of looking infuriated at them he looked kindly at them his long silver hair and beard sweeping down his back and the front of his dressing gown, and he smiled at the first years as he repeated his question to Frank who was looking uncharacteristically nervous,  
  
"W-We were looking for Miriam's Kneaz-"  
  
"Kitten!" Miriam said cutting Frank off with a look of warning  
  
"He's very little" Lily said almost amazed at how brave she had been to have spoken to the headmaster.  
  
"It should really have been expected" Dumbledore said looking slightly grave and speaking as though he hadn't heard their explanation "When things are forbidden then the urge to push those limitations is always a strong impulse to counteract, especially in the young."  
  
"We didn't do it on purpose professor!" Miriam said a little too heatedly for Lily's liking "I've lost my Knea-Kitten, I mean my Kitten, MacMikelmouse he got out of the common room and we had to find him!"  
  
"It's Artemis isn't it?" Dumbledore asked looking very keenly at Miriam over the rims of his half moon glasses as Miriam nodded looking a little nervous, "MacMikelmouse is a very fine name for a fine creature like a...Kitten, it has absolutely no meaning you know" Miriam nodded looking as confused as the others about the professor's strange conversation  
  
"My grandfather named him" she said slowly as though this explained everything.  
  
"I knew your grandparents very well Miss Artemis, you are the spitting image of your grandmother when she was your age" Lily saw Miriam smile obviously pleased at the professor's words, "She was an exceptional witch Miss Artemis and will be sorely missed"  
  
"I know" Miriam said glumly,  
  
"Come" Dumbledore said holding his arms wide "I will escort you back to your common room" The first years followed Professor Dumbledore down the corridor and up several flights of stairs, Lily was amazed at how energetic the professor was and unlike the first years he wasn't out of breath when they reached the seventh floor, and they crossed the corridor towards the fat lady's portrait.  
  
"I must beg you not to stray from your common room again" Dumbledore said has he called out the password and the Fat lady swung forwards tutting at the first years, "Certain nights at Hogwarts are not as safe as others and for your own safety I ask you to abide by the rules" they all nodded to show the professor that they had all understood,  
  
"Very well, to bed" Dumbledore said waving his hand at the opening. The first years all climbed through the portrait hole not believing their luck of having escaped Peeves, Filch and at meeting Dumbledore up close and not receiving punishments for being out after curfew. Lily looked at her watch it read, Twelve forty-five. They had only been out of the common room for just over half an hour but it had felt much longer then that,  
  
"Miriam!" Amy and Dymphna called as they saw Lily, Miriam, Frank and Alice enter the common room,  
  
"Are you alright" Dymphna called rushing over to them with Amy by her side,  
  
"You didn't get in any trouble did you?" Amy asked looking concerned,  
  
"What happened to you?" they both said in unison as they looked at Frank's cut cheek.  
  
"This rivalry has got to stop!" said Remus Lupin who was sitting on one of the comfy chairs by the fire still looking very pale and slightly ill, sitting in his lap curled up and fast asleep was a tiny striped and speckled fur ball: MacMikelmouse  
  
"Mac!!!" Miriam cried ecstatically rushing over to Remus, and picking the small kitten up, "You found him! You found him! How can I ever thank you?" Miriam said tears rolling down her face as she hugged Remus and kissed him on the cheek several times as Mac hissed loudly and his lion like tail thumped against Miriam's body.  
  
Remus looked very shocked at Miriam's behaviour, and although he was very pale Lily could have sworn that she saw his cheeks blushing red under his pallid complexion, Miriam still hadn't let go of Remus and was hugging him very tightly as though it had been her who he had saved,  
  
"I helped as well!" Lily heard Frank mumble next to her and Lily smiled, and Amy and Dymphna cooed as Miriam kissed Remus again.  
  
"Where was the fur ball?" Frank said loudly has he moved over to Miriam and Remus and prised them apart,  
  
"What?!?" Remus said blushing even more as Amy and Dymphna giggled and he rubbed the cheek that Miriam had kissed looking slightly dazed "Oh!, James and Sirius had hidden him in our dormitory, I found them trying to stuff him into one of their trunks"  
  
"They didn't?" Lily gasped, Remus nodded.  
  
"And you rescued him!" Miriam said in awe smiling very broadly as Mac nuzzled her cheek purring very loudly now that she was no longer embracing Remus,  
  
"Well he kind of rescued himself" Remus said smiling as he moved closer to Miriam and Frank laughed as Mac took a swipe at Remus' face  
  
"I did say they were fiercely loyal" Remus said backing away and Mac settled down purring again,  
  
"You did indeed" Amy said giggling "You should see Sirius and James' faces!" Amy and Dymphna then dived into a long explanation of what had happened when Lily, Miriam, Alice and Frank had left the common room.  
  
James and Sirius had been bragging about how easily Miriam was to manipulate especially when they had discovered what she cared for more then anything else, and when Alice and Lily had followed her out of the common room they had killed themselves with laughter. That was until Amy and Dymphna had hexed them both with the jelly legs curse and they wobbled off up to their dormitory to try and look up the counter curse. It was shortly after that that Remus had headed off to the dormitory to help them and he had found them with Mac.  
  
"Their now at the hospital wing" Dymphna said laughing "Peter had to take them. You should have seen their faces!" Dymphna and Amy burst out laughing pulling their hands across their own faces in imitation of scratch marks.  
  
"So it's a really good thing that you four didn't get into any trouble tonight, because it would have made everything worth while from them" Remus said moving closer to Miriam as she continued to give all her affection to Mac who purred very loudly but kept his eyes narrowed and fastened onto Remus as though he was some sort of a threat to his mistress.  
  
"Remus also thinks that we should put an end to all this pranking that we started" Amy said sounding a little disappointed,  
  
"No!" Lily said surprising herself once again that night at what she had said "They we're the ones that started this! If hadn't had been for them we'd have finished our homework and have gone straight to bed, but no they couldn't let anything drop and we could have been expelled to night or worse!!!"  
  
"Lily-" Miriam said but Lily wasn't in any mood to listen to reason, she now wished that she hadn't tried to have stopped Miriam with some of the plans she had suggested to revenge Severus' beating. But now the thought of Severus Snape's bruised face when he had been discharged from the hospital wing, Miriam's distress at the though that she'd never she her beloved pet again and the fact that she, Miriam, Alice and Frank could have been seriously injured tonight by Peeves or the fact that if Filch had discovered them in the bombsite that was now the trophy room he would have personally ensured that McGonagall would have expelled them. All this boiled over in Lily and she finally burst.  
  
"Tell them!" Lily said angrily to Frank and Remus "that if they are after a fight then we are more then capable and willing to give them one!" Amy and Dymphna cheered but Miriam and Alice exchanged shocked looks at this sudden change in Lily  
  
"But-" Frank began but Lily cut him off,  
  
"No Frank you can either be with us or against us, the choice is yours. You have to decide. The same goes for you Remus," the rest of the first year girls looked at Lily impressed and Lily could feel a strange sense surge through her body energizing her,  
  
"To war ladies!" Lily said pointing towards the stairs of the girls' dormitories and Alice, Amy and Dymphna smiled mischievously, as Lily led them up towards their dormitory, Miriam chasing after them and Frank and Remus were left standing in the common room looking bewildered.  
  
"Now who sounds like an insane General?" Miriam said as she reached Lily and the girls climbed the spiral stairwell towards their dormitory.  
  
Lily couldn't help but smile as they all changed into their pyjamas and nightdresses, and climbed into bed, Lily saw Mac curled up next to Miriam's pillow still purring as Miriam pulled her drapes closed. Lily kicked off her slippers and slipped under her covers pulling her drapes around her. Lily was still smiling as she laid her head down on her pillow and closed her eyes.  
  
'What have I done!!!' she though sitting up immediately. How could she have said what she had? Miriam was the one that was supposed to come out with insane ideas Miriam was the one who should have pledged a war upon the boys and have rallied the girls into battle! Miriam was the insane one of the group!!! Lily was the nice one, the one who was supposed to keep a level head at all times!  
  
'How! How could she have let this happen!' Lily asked herself and the answer that she got back disturbed her even more 'Because James and Sirius deserved it!' 


	17. Bad blood

**Chapter 17: -** Bad blood  
  
The next day Lily had hoped that it had all been a really bad nightmare but she had hoped in vain, Miriam was acting extremely proud of Lily as though Lily had been an apprentice of hers that she had cared for and nurtured, Amy, Dymphna and Alice where all very eager to pay James and Sirius back for the distress that they had coursed Miriam, but Miriam much to Lily's relief was back to her normal eccentric-self, deeming that they would give Frank and Remus twenty four hours for them to decide where they would place their loyalties, before any further action was to be taken.  
  
The first year girls and boys sat at opposite ends of the common room that evening Frank and Remus had obviously delivered Lily's message first thing that morning and now Sirius and James kept giving the girl's very odd looks, somewhere in between annoyance that the girls hadn't been given any punishments for the previous night and astonishment for the fact that Lily had said what she had. Peter cowered in between the two boys, Miriam had said that morning that it was very apparent where Pettigrew's loyalties would be and that it would be with the people who would be best equipped to protect him, and has Frank and Remus had now declared themselves to be Switzerland and refused to take sides those people would be James and Sirius.  
  
"They'll help" Miriam said nodding her head has she doodled on a scrap of parchment her completed Astronomy homework lying discarded on the table next to her. Even though the girls hadn't spoken for a full five minutes Lily knew exactly who Miriam was talking about.  
  
At first Miriam had been shocked to learn that Frank and Remus had decided not to take sides even if it wasn't with the girls Miriam seemed to have expected them to have joined with the boys, but as the day had progressed she had warmed to the idea that Frank and Remus would stay natural,  
  
"They'll help" Miriam said again but still only to herself, Lily sighed and continued with her Astrology homework, they had Astrology every Wednesday at midnight and they only had twenty minutes to go before the old grandfather clock that was situated in between the two doorways that led to the different dormitories chimed twelve,  
  
"Any one seen Remus?" asked Frank as he sat down next to Miriam who quickly hid the parchment she had been doodling on,  
  
"What was that? Your top secret plans of attack?" Frank asked grinning as he tried to remove Miriam's hand from the parchment,  
  
"Maybe" Miriam said brandishing her quill's feather at him like a sword with her free hand,  
  
"You wanted something?" Lily snapped, she knew that Frank and Miriam where just playing but it was really annoying her how every time they met in the corridors or sat near to each other in class or at meals that Frank and Miriam would act exactly like this pretending to be fighting against each other all the time.  
  
"Sorry Miss prissy!" Frank said getting up "I a lonely serf didn't mean to upset you in your stately domain",  
  
"Frank!" Lily said apologetically but Frank just smiled and bowed,  
  
"Yes ma'am"  
  
"If you know anything about constellations then shut up and sit down" Alice said irritably as she and Amy where struggling through their homework "If not get lost!" Frank sighed and sat down, his reason for disturbing the girls completely forgotten.  
  
Astrology was one of Lily's favourite subjects manly because it was something that she had understood from the first lesson, unlike Transfiguration, charms and Potions, because like she had told Miriam several times, "Even Muggles study stars", Astronomy was also something that she could write and tell her parents about and that they too could understand.  
  
The Gryffindors took this subject on their own and in their first few weeks they where just studying the stars and plotting their positions on their star charts, but like the other classes this too had eventually became harder.  
  
'Tonight would be an excellent night for Astronomy' Lily had thought has she and the rest of the first years climbed out onto the parapet roof of the astronomy tower. The moon was so full and shining so brightly it would help them see their charts better without the aid of artificial lighting and there wasn't a cloud in the sky so that the first years could see all the stars shining brightly. Because of the perfect conditions their professor had decided to give them a test in which they had to plot the location of the stars which could be seen over their own homes. James and Sirius complained loudly that the test was too hard for them and that it was third year work, but the astronomy professor just smiled and told them that it wasn't really that hard if they all just planned everything out mathematically and logically.  
  
Peter seemed to be finding the test extremely hard, Lily suspected that it was because he couldn't copy from anyone else as each star chart would be different. But this fact seemed to have escaped the small mousy haired boy and Lily had seen him trying to sneak peeks at Miriam's and Frank's work as they where standing closest to him.  
  
James also complained that Alice was copying his work and that she should receive a zero for her mark as she had plotted the same consolations in the same positions as him. Sirius roared with laughter and Peter followed their example, until both Lily and Miriam told them to stop acting so stupid,  
  
"Of course I'll have then same chart as you, you prat!" Alice said angrily "I'm forced to live in the same bloody house as you!" Lily laughed and so did Amy and Dymphna, looking around the tower Lily suddenly realised that Remus Lupin was missing from the class. She wanted to ask their Professor where he was but after Alice's outburst she had insisted that they worked on their charts in quiet.  
  
As soon as the class was dismissed Lily raised the point of Remus' absence with Miriam as the girls raced the boys back to the common room, James had threatened to magically seal the fat lady's portrait with the Everlasting seal charm that Alice had used on the girls dormitory door.  
  
"I don't know where he was?" Miriam said to Lily as they ran down the stairs two at a time, Miriam had noticed Remus' absences as well "He was looking a little sick yesterday though" she said as the girls pushed past Peter and they took off down the corridor,  
  
"Is there any wonder why the poor lad's ill with you all over him last night" Frank said joining the girls,  
  
"Funny Longbottom, very funny" Miriam said "Race you?" Frank nodded and Lily watched Frank and Miriam takeoff down the corridor and Lily laughed as she saw Miriam trip Sirius up and he fell to the ground.  
  
Fortunately for all the first years the person that reached the fat lady's portrait first was Frank and as he was still acting as Switzerland he allowed all of them back into the common room. The thought of Remus and his absence from the test was pushed from Lily's mind as she climbed the spiral staircase to bed. Lily was reminded of Remus' absences from Astronomy the next day as the first years sat together in their first lesson of the day which was charms,  
  
"No" Frank said as he turned round in his seat to talk to Lily, Miriam and Alice "He wasn't in bed when we got back last night. James thought he might have gone to the hospital wing, because he did look really ill the last time I saw him"  
  
"Perhaps Miriam gave him the kiss of death" Alice said jokingly but Miriam looked as thought she didn't think it was anything to joke about and neither did Lily, What if Remus was really ill, it wasn't like him to miss a lesson! By the end of the day it wasn't just Lily and Miriam who was worried about Remus' whereabouts, Frank and Alice had accepted the fact that Something must be really wrong with him has he hadn't turned up for any of their lessons and hadn't been seen at lunch or at dinner.  
  
Unfortunately because of the prank that James and Sirius had pulled on Miriam by hiding Mac, the boys had seen Remus' absence in a very different light.  
  
"WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM?" barked Sirius that night as the girls and Frank sat at the tables in the full common room as Sirius and James stormed over to them. Sirius grabbed Miriam by the arm and pulled her off her seat, he was in a fearful rage and all the first years looked very shocked at his behaviour.  
  
"DO - DO WITH WHOM BLACK?" Miriam yelled equalling Sirius anger but not fully understanding what Sirius was going on about as she rubbed her arm,  
  
"YOU KNOW PERFECTLY WELL WHO" by now it was hard for anyone in the common room to pretend that they hadn't over heard Sirius and Miriam's conversation and so no one even bothered to pretend they were doing their homework anymore. Especially when there was the promise of a fight, even prefect Amanda didn't seem to want to get involved, Lily saw her slipping away up the stairs to the girls' dormitories.  
  
"Practical jokes are one thing Mi" Sirius growled staring daggers at Miriam, "But kidnapping is going too far, what have you done with Remus?"  
  
"Kidnapping" Miriam bust out laughing "Why would we want to Kidnap Remus? Where would we hide him for a start?"  
  
Lily wanted to grab Miriam and run, it didn't seem a good idea to her to be laughing at Sirius when he was in a rage especially when he looked like he'd like nothing else but for Miriam to provoke him into an attack,  
  
"Okay you two" said the steady voice of prefect Gideon Prewett, and Lily breathed a sign of relief "People are trying to work here and we don't need you two making fools of yourselves"  
  
"I'm warning you Mi if you've done anything to him" growled Sirius again  
  
"You'll do what? Write to your mummy?" Miriam said putting on a horrid baby voice, Lily and Alice gasped, while Dymphna stifled a scream with her hands, Miriam had pushed it too far and Sirius had cracked. Leaping forwards with an enraged expression on his face he grabbed the front of Miriam's robes but before he could do anything Gideon had grabbed hold of Sirius pulling him off Miriam shouting,  
  
"What the hell do you think you are doing, Black!" all the other students around the common room where on their feet now trying to see what had happened some were even yelling at Sirius calling him names  
  
"You don't hit girls" Gideon yelled above the racket in the common room that was now escalating as he pulled Sirius over to James, Frank and Peter. Rushing forwards to Miriam, Lily could see blood gushing down the front of her robes, in the scuffle Miriam had been hurt, she had a split lower lip and a really bloody nosebleed,  
  
"Are you alright?" Gideon asked Miriam sounding very concerned has he pushed Sirius into a near by chair, Miriam nodded but Gideon persisted "Best go to the hospital wing to make sure," he said softly  
  
Lily and Alice took hold of Miriam beneath her elbows and steered her to the portrait hole followed by Frank as Amy and Dymphna looked on in shock. It was a little difficult climbing out of the portrait hole with Miriam clutching her nose but some how they managed it and where soon heading up the corridor to the hospital wing,  
  
They had made it to the hospital wing in what Lily thought must have been record timing, Miriam practically ran all the way, which Lily, Alice and Frank couldn't help but think was extremely strange for just a nose bleed.  
  
"Oh my dear!!!" Madam Pomfrey said rushing forwards as they entered the Hospital wing "What in Merlin's name have you been doing this time?" Lily had noticed that on the journey over to the hospital wing Miriam's nose bleed actually seemed to be getting worse. And when Frank had told Miriam to pinch the bridge of her nose, Miriam had replied irritably saying that that wouldn't work.  
  
"Over here quickly!" Madam Pomfrey said urgently as she guided Miriam over to the nearest bed, and giving Miriam a hanky to hold to her still bleeding nose she as rushed back to her office. Seconds later Madam Pomfrey was rushing back to Miriam's bedside holding a tray full of strange bottles and equipment and a large pile of swabs.  
  
"I don't understand?" Lily said as Madam Pomfrey shooed her, Frank and Alice away and she pulled the screen across hiding Miriam from view. "It was only a nosebleed!" Frank and Alice shrugged they knew only as much as Lily did.  
  
The three friends sat down on the bed next to them, they all seemed to be very confused and not knowing what else to do they waited. Minutes past in silence and Lily stared at her shoes, the only noises that they could hear was from madam Pomfrey as she ground ingredients, cast spells and told Miriam off, as Miriam mumbled and groaned occasionally in pain.  
  
"You should have more sense about you" Lily heard the matron say "Especially a girl in your condition" this intrigued Lily and she looked up at the screen that obscured Miriam from view, what exactly was wrong with Miriam? But she wasn't left to ponder this as Madam Pomfrey suddenly pulled back the bed screen to relieve Miriam lying on the bed. Lily heard Alice gasp and Frank muttered a profanity under his breath which thankfully neither Madam Pomfrey nor Miriam had heard.  
  
Lily didn't know what to say or do, Miriam looked almost like a ghost has she lay on the bed looking extremely pale contrasting violently with the black of her robes and if it wasn't for the fact that Miriam's eyes where moving from one friend to the other Lily would have sworn she was dead.  
  
"She's lost a lot of blood" Madam Pomfrey said softly to them "I'll let you stay for a little while but when I say so you will have to leave" and with that she headed back to her office saying something about having to inform the headmaster and Miriam's parents. The first years stared at each other for a very long time, no one speaking but finally Miriam broke the silence,  
  
"You're all scared of me aren't you?" Miriam said quietly, Lily realised that she, Frank and Alice had been staring at Miriam with their mouths slightly open.  
  
"W-We're not scared of you!" Lily said shaking her head still not understanding "We're all just a little shocked that's all"  
  
"I've never seen a nosebleed that bad before" Frank said trying to make light of the situation  
  
"Thanks, well I'm glad you enjoyed the show!" Miriam said bitterly turning onto her side so she couldn't see them, Frank looked towards Lily and Alice for help but Lily didn't really know what to do, but thankfully Alice did. She walked over to Miriam and hugged her, instantly Miriam burst into tears.  
  
"I'm sorry" she said hiding her head in Alice's shoulder "I didn't mean to sound so...so...I'm sorry!"  
  
"You don't have to be sorry" Lily said "It's us who should be, it's just that we were so shocked when we saw you that's all"  
  
"It's ok" Alice told her "You don't have to worry Mi where still your friends"  
  
"Yeah" Frank said moving forwards "you don't have to worry" Miriam lifted her head out of Alice's shoulder and forced a smile on her still pale face as the tears continued to roll down her cheeks,  
  
"Your probably all wondering what's going on aren't you?" Miriam said drying her eyes. Lily looked at the others Alice just smiled at Miriam as she passed her another hanky but Frank looked like he was bursting to shout "Hell yes!"  
  
"I-I've a g-genetic blood disorder," Miriam said quietly "It's been in my family for generations, everyone thought that it had been bred out but it hadn't, it had only just skipped a couple of generations. It means my blood doesn't clot if I get cut or have a nosebleed" Miriam looked down and plucked at the front of her robes indicating her blood that now stained them.  
  
"You see Lily" Miriam continued trying to force a smile "That's what's so special about us pure bloods, we're either insane or diseased!" Frank and Alice protested and tried to comfort Miriam as more tears rolled down her cheeks, Lily heard Alice telling Miriam that it was no good trying to blame her family for something that they couldn't have controlled, but Lily couldn't help but remember something that she had heard on a news show one time when she was at home saying that blood disorders where extremely bad. She wanted to ask Miriam more about it but Lily knew that now wasn't the right time and that her questions could easily wait for when Miriam felt better.  
  
The four friends sat together for a long time trying to keep their conversation going and even though they all could feel that it was being forced it still left good to be sitting together. Lily was looking around the hospital wing trying to find a subject that she could talk about when she noticed that at the far end of the room another bed screen was pulled across the far end bed,  
  
"Who do you think is behind there?" Lily said to the others pointing towards the bed,  
  
"Dunno" Frank said shrugging "Probably Davey Gudgeon, He nearly lost his eye playing that stupid game with that willow tree you know?"  
  
"Don't you dare say it was my brother's fault" Miriam said still looking very pale,  
  
"He wasn't going to" Alice reassured Miriam as she shot Frank a threatening look "if Gudgeon was too thick to realise what could have happened to him while playing tag with that monstrous willow tree than he shouldn't have been in Revenclaw" Frank laughed and agreed.  
  
"But it can't be Davey Gudgeon" Lily said still looking at the screen "he was released a few days after he came in. Remember what McGonagall said in that notice she read out in the common room"  
  
"Then who is-" Alice said but cut herself off has the same thought struck them all,  
  
"Remus" Miriam whispered  
  
"I forgot all about him" Frank said sounding a little ashamed as he walked to the foot of Miriam's bed  
  
"Do-Do you think he's alright?" Alice asked nervously, as the same thought crossed Lily's mind.  
  
What if he wasn't? What if he was really ill? 'But surly if he was that ill they would have been told. Wouldn't they?' Lily thought.  
  
"What do you think your doing?" Alice hissed in alarm and Lily was pulled out of her thoughts, to see Miriam swinging her legs over the side of her bed,  
  
"I want to see if he's ok!" she said breathlessly as though what she was doing took all her strength to do and Lily realised that with the amount of blood Miriam had lost it probably was.  
  
"Here!" Lily said rushing to Miriam's side and supporting her, as Frank rushed to help. Lily and Frank supported Miriam as they and Alice crossed the room towards the screened bed. For some strange reason the closer they got to the screen the more Lily kept thinking that they shouldn't be doing this, Alice moved in front of the trio and when they reached the bed Alice pulled the screen back to revile that it was Remus Lupin who was lying on the bed in front of them his eyes closed. Lily, Miriam and Alice gasped and Frank swore as they stared at their friend in front of them.  
  
Remus was as pale as Miriam and his thin torso was covered in recently made scares and cut and the bandages covering them and his arms where gradually becoming soaked in blood.  
  
"What happened to him?" Miriam asked her voice cracking, "Who did this to him?" Lily wanted to voice how she felt as well but she couldn't, she couldn't find her voice, every time she opened her mouth to speak no words came out.  
  
"What are you doing?" Called the voice of Madam Pomfrey has she bustled out of her office "Come away from there let the poor boy rest!"  
  
"What happened to him?" Lily asked finally finding her voice as Madam Pomfrey shepherded them back over to Miriam's bad,  
  
"It's no concern of yours" Pomfrey snapped  
  
"But he's our mate!" Frank called indignantly, but any other protests he might have made where quickly stifled by the withering look madam Pomfrey gave him,  
  
"We want to help" Alice said  
  
"You can help by leaving the poor boy alone; he's been through enough for one day he needs rest, as does Miss Artemis. You three had better head back to your common room it's well past your curfew!"  
  
"Why can't I go back to Gryffindor tower as well?" Lily heard Miriam complaining her voice so weak now that it was barely audible as Madam Pomfrey slowly helped her into her bed and Lily, Frank and Alice where told to head back to the common room. 


	18. Confrontation in the Owlery

**Chapter 18: -** Confrontation in the Owlery  
  
Remus' rejoining the Gryffindor first years was greatly over shadowed by the continued abscess of Miriam. Remus seemed content not to announce his presence to the whole house and only James and Sirius seemed reluctant to oblige him.  
  
"Well I say we should have a huge shindig!" James said that evening as the first year boys sat with what remained of the first year girls at the back of a full Gryffindor common room,  
  
"I don't know how you dare suggest it!" Lily said angrily "I'm as glad as anyone to have Remus back safe after what happened to him but.... What did hap-"  
  
"Yeah James" Remus said cutting Lily off "Just drop the party idea we're not exactly the best loved students in Gryffindor house as it is...We could leave it until Miriam gets out of the hospital" he added cheerfully,  
  
"But then there wouldn't be any reason to party!" Lily heard Sirius say under his breath. Lily was beginning to really dislike James and Sirius, they were both arrogant and really insensitive, it was only because Frank and Remus still wanted to be their friends that any of the first year girls where sitting with them now.  
  
'They mustn't be all that bad' Lily kept telling herself 'not if Frank and Remus still liked them!' but Lily didn't really believe a word of it no matter how many times she told herself that.  
  
"With any luck Miriam will be back with us before Monday" Remus said trying to keep a conversation going. Unfortunately Miriam wasn't back in lessons on Monday and nor the next day.  
  
Lily, Alice and Frank were forced to spend the next couple of weeks Miriam free as she recouped in the hospital wing. Lily soon discovered that Hogwarts wasn't much fun without Miriam, lessons seemed very muted and dragged on for ages especially history of magic where it was usual practice for the four friends to sit at the back of the class playing games like Hang man and noughts and crosses. They would also trade chocolate frog cards while Miriam would practice transfiguring her quill and ink well into other objects, this always proved to be very enjoyable especially when James and Sirius tried to blow them up giving Professor Binns a really bad fright and making Lily grateful that professor Binns was already dead so couldn't have an heart attack.  
  
The tedium that had grown during the lessons was only rivalled by the utter boredom that greeted the first years each evening in the Gryffindor common room. Without the constant disputes and petty bickering that Miriam and Sirius always incited when they where in close proximity to each other, the hours before bed time seemed to drag excruciatingly while they all struggled through their homework under the scrutinizing eye of prefect Amanda Hugh-Genghis.  
  
The time that Lily spent separated from Miriam Artemis made Lily realise how much Miriam was needed, James and Sirius gloated constantly and never missed an opportunity to tease or bully Severus Snape. On the first full day that Miriam spent in the hospital wing Severus came over to talk to Lily at the Gryffindor table.  
  
"I –I was -"  
  
"Spit it out Snivellus!" James exclaimed between mouthfuls of chips,  
  
"I-I was hoping you could tell me how Miriam is doing?" Severus asked Lily feebly and Lily couldn't help feel sorry for the pale skinny boy.  
  
"I'm sorry Severus but I don't really know" Lily was ashamed to admit it "Madam Pomfrey did say she was going to be ok but I don't really know for sure"  
  
"H-Hav-Have you been allowed to see her yet?" Severus asked still sounding a little timid as he stared down at his shoes trying to ignore James, Sirius and Peter as they sniggered.  
  
"No" Lily replied trying to ignore the boys as well "Pomfrey's only allowing family to visit her-"  
  
"Did you get that then Snivellus" Sirius said loudly "Only family members are allowed to see Mi and no matter how much brown nosing your father does to Mi's father you'll never be her family!"  
  
"How dare you!" Severus said pulling his wand out of his robes and aiming it at Sirius who just smiled "My family and the Artemis' have been friends for years!"  
  
"I think friend is a bit of a push!" Sirius said grinning "unless friend some how translates as being land tenant!" Lily saw Severus flush red under his still pallid skin as Sirius and James both laughed. Even Frank, Alice and Dymphna struggled hard to contain their own laughter.  
  
"You'll pay for that!" Severus said through clenched teeth  
  
"No Snivellus I think that your family's the one that pays for it!" Sirius said as James burst out laughing. Severus' fingers clenched around the handle of his wand as his face flushed even more redder.  
  
"What are you doing here Snape?" Asked Gryffindor prefect Gideon Prewett "please return to your own table" Gideon said smiling pleasantly at Severus as Severus thrust his wand back into his robes and turned on his heels heading back to his own table. Gideon's smile instantly faded as he turned on James and Sirius "Don't you two think that you've caused enough trouble to last you both a life time at Hogwarts?"  
  
Even though Gideon's appearance had wiped the smiles off Sirius and James faces, Lily suspected that Gideon's words had only encouraged the boys to lash out more at poor Severus.  
  
"I don't understand" Alice said irritably to madam Pomfrey "If she's feeling better then why can't we see her?" It had been over a week since Miriam had been rushed into the hospital wing with a nose bleed and every evening after classes Lily, Alice and Frank would head to the hospital wing only to be told that Miriam was doing better but she still wasn't allowed visitors other then family members.  
  
"It's not fair!" Frank said angrily "We're her friends we have a right to see her!"  
  
"And I told you Mr Longbottom only family, now move along" Pomfrey said as she shooed the three friends away from the infirmary doors.  
  
"It's not fair!" Frank said irritably as he kicked a near by suite of armour causing it to rock unsteadily on its base and making Frank swear loudly as he clutched his foot.  
  
The Gryffindor first year's life's where getting worse as the days progressed, after the episode in the great hall between James, Sirius and Severus the three boys never seemed to miss an opportunity to hex, curse or sabotage each other. The pervious day in potions Lily had seen Sirius pouring milkweed essences in to Severus' cauldron causing it to expel its thick foul smelling innards on all the students close to it. Lily thought that the weeks could have been made better if they where only allowed to see Miriam but madam Pomfrey had insisted that only family members where allowed to visit her, this meant that on several occasions Miriam's parents where seen inside the castle. Frank took a perverted pleasure in seeing how many of the teachers such as professor Viveridan and Toll tried to suck up to Miriam's father and how Eloise Rookwood and Bellatrix Black would act as if they were as sweet as honey around Miriam's mother. But it wasn't just Bella and Eloise that tried to creep around Mr and Mrs Artemis most of the older students were the worst for it.  
  
"Why do they do it?" Lily had asked indicating the students crowded around Mr and Mrs Artemis as she looked out of the Owlery window as the five friends sat writing letters home, Frank's reply was hysterical laughter and between wiping his eyes he muttered the words "Suck ups"  
  
"The Artemis family have a lot of influence" Dymphna said idly as she penned her letter,  
  
"Most people think of them as the wizarding equivalent of royalty" Alice added sounding proud,  
  
"What?" Lily said in shock thinking she had misheard Alice's words "Miriam's royalty?"  
  
"Not exactly" Frank said moving over to the window "Mi's a member of one of the oldest magical families in Brittan-"  
  
"And the wealthiest!" Dymphna cut in "Which means they have lots of weight and control over things that happen in the wizarding world!"  
  
"Years ago it was rumoured that one minister of magic only got into power because of his connections with the Artemis family" Frank whispered conspiringly "Even though his opponent was the better candidate!"  
  
"I heard of that!" Dymphna said excitedly "It was before my Gran was born there was this massive coo because it was rumoured the voting was rigged because of pressure that was put on members of The Wizengamot to vote for the man that the Artemis' backed so other guy didn't stand a real chance of winning!"  
  
"You shouldn't listen to rumours!" Hissed a voice from the Owlery door the five friend's heads spun quickly towards the door fearing that a teacher or Miriam's older brothers had heard them, but in Lily's eyes the person who had over heard their conversation was ten times worse. Standing in the open doorway a sealed envelop in his hands was Severus Snape.  
  
"We-We w-where only talking about M-Miriam's history" Amy stammered as she took a step backwards,  
  
"The Artemis' are a great and noble family" Severus said staring at Amy icily "And that particular rumour has no founding!"  
  
"Look Sev, mate, we didn't mean any harm," Frank quickly said walking in front of the girls his arms spread wide "besides Mi wouldn't have minded us talking about it"  
  
"Yeah Snivellus the Artemis' love a good scandal!" Said the voice of Sirius Black, as he James, Peter and Remus entered the Owlery, James pushed past Severus knocking him to the ground,  
  
"Oi!" Lily yelled in protest, Lily may have thought that Severus was a little creepy but she also knew that Sirius and James were bullies.  
  
"Watch it James!" Remus said as he rushed to help Severus to his feet "Are you ok?" Remus asked as he brushed some of the straw from Severus' robes.  
  
"Get off me!" hissed Severus as he pulled away from Remus  
  
"Well well well Snivellus what a coincident to find you here!" James said smiling broadly as though nothing had happened  
  
"What is this, The official write to mummy day?" Sirius said jokingly as he looked around the Owlery at all the parchment and envelopes on the floor, Lily noticed that Severus was staring daggers at James and Sirius and that Severus was also balling his fists in his robe pockets where lily guessed Severus kept his wand.  
  
'That's all we need' lily thought, for Severus, James and Sirius to kill each other,  
  
"Severus how's your history of magic homework going?" Frank said quickly as he took hold of Severus' arm and steered him over to one of the school owls and helped Severus to attach his letter, Lily breathed a sigh of relief as did Remus who was rubbing his chest a little where Severus had pushed him.  
  
"It's such a shame to find Snivellus' personality so sour" James said sarcastically "otherwise we may have all been friends"  
  
"What are you jerks playing at?" Alice said ignoring James's comments as she grabbed her brother's arm keeping her voice low,  
  
"Nothing!" James protested smiling smugly as he shook Alice's grip free "I just came to send mum a letter that's all"  
  
"Really! well where's your letter then?" Alice asked heatedly her hands on her hips as James' smile faded  
  
"You total dunce!" Sirius said quickly rapping James on the head "You must have left in our room"  
  
"Yep must have done mate, well we'll just have to got back and get it!" James said not even attempting to move,  
  
"Well go and get it then!" Alice said getting even angrier at her brother  
  
"Fine I will James said storming out of the Owlery followed by Sirius and Peter"  
  
"So you did actually write a letter after all?" Lily heard Peter say as the boys walked out of the room.  
  
After finishing their letters Lily, Frank, Alice, Remus, Dymphna and Amy walked with Severus to the great hall for dinner.  
  
"If you ask me the sooner Miriam gets back the better!" Amy said as she helped herself to steak and kidney pie,  
  
"Too right at least she could keep them in check!" Dymphna said indicating James and Sirius sitting at the other end off the Gryffindor table,  
  
"Their not that bad" Remus said mildly,  
  
"Not that bad! If it wasn't for you and Frank they would have hexed Severus today" Lily whispered as professor Toll walked up the aisles between the tables,  
  
"Sometimes I think Severus deserves it" Frank said idly "I mean he doesn't go out of his way to make others feel inclined to like him"  
  
"That's no reason for anyone to bully anyone" Amy said, and Lily felt an instant surge of affection to her friend.  
  
"I'd just like to see Mi" Alice said pushing her peas around her plate  
  
"Yeah me too" Remus said softly  
  
"It's been way too long since I last heard her calling Sirius names or planning revenge tactics" Frank said happily,  
  
"If only Madam Pomfrey would let us see her" Amy said  
  
"Why do we have to wait?" Lily said suddenly, a plan forming in her head,  
  
"What?" Asked Lily's five friends at once  
  
"Why should we have to wait for permission? We could just go and see her"  
  
"Right now!" Amy asked in alarm at Lily's sudden boldness  
  
"Obviously not right now but why don't we take a leaf out of Miriam's book" Lily said quietly as she leaned into her friends as professor Toll passed by  
  
"I like" Frank said "Miriam would never have waited this long if it was any of us in there"  
  
"Precisely" Lily said smiling "So what do you all say shall we do it or not?"  
  
"I'm definitely in" Frank said his eyes sparkling with excitement,  
  
"Me too" Alice said a little timidly  
  
"Count us in" Amy and Dymphna both said together  
  
"Remus?" Frank asked elbowing him in the ribs "What about you are you up for a bit of a midnight maraudering?"  
  
Remus looked around at Frank and the girls at the table, Lily guessed that he was assessing the amount of trouble they would all get into, lily saw his eye flick towards James, Sirius and Peter. Frank must have seen it also,  
  
"Don't worry about them Remy they'll never know" Frank said  
  
"Well do you want to come with us?" Lily whispered as she learned across the table under the pretence of getting another pork chop as professor Toll passed by again, Remus watched Professor Toll pass before he gave his answer, 


	19. McGonagall's map

**Chapter 19: -** McGonagall's map  
  
"Yes" Remus said his eyes sparkling with anticipation "I'll do it!"  
  
"Brill" Lily said leaning back in her seat "right here's what I think we should do...."  
  
Over the next few days the gang made their preparations. Lily assigned everyone a task, Dymphna, Amy and Alice's job was to plan out the quickest route to the infirmary but this was made extremely difficult during the day by professor McGonagall and perfect Gideon Prewett who now constantly kept a watchful eye on the first years to ensure that they didn't cause anymore mischief.  
  
"It's impossible" Dymphna said one evening as the gang sat at the back of the common room as two fourth form boys started to yell at each other near the notice board, "We can't even begin to plan a best route if we only know one way"  
  
"Besides how to get there will be the least of our worries, are you forgetting that Filch and that evil cat prowls around at night?" Frank said moving to a chair opposite so he could get a better view of the promised fight,  
  
"No I've not forgotten!" Lily said exasperatedly "I was just kind of putting it off"  
  
"What we really need is a map" Remus said  
  
"A map would be really cool" Amy said cheerfully "But where would we get one from?"  
  
"We could make one?" Alice said hopefully  
  
"It'd take too long" Frank said shaking is head then punching the air in imitation of the jab one of the fourth years had given his sparing buddy "What we need is a ready made map"  
  
"From where?" Lily asked as she ducked out of the way as a group of second years shot past to get a better view of the fight,  
  
"I bet Dumbledore will have a map in his office, Oi down in front!" Frank said yelling the last part to the second years who where now blocking his view,  
  
"I feared you might say that!" Alice said going pale at the though "We're not stealing from the headmaster"  
  
"You wouldn't be able to get into his office anyway its password protected" Remus informed them, Lily wondered how he knew this, it wasn't like it was common knowledge and it wasn't like any of the first years had even been there. Not yet anyway!  
  
"So who else would have a map?" Amy asked as the fourth form boys came crashing at her feet and she, Lily and the rest of the gang fled to the nearby window for safety,  
  
"I don't know" Lily said solemnly as she hung her head, it had seemed such a great idea at first and Lily was even shocked at how bold she had been but now the idea was just fading because too many obstacles where in the way,  
  
"We might not know who has a map but I bet he does!" Remus said pointing out of the window. Peering out of the glass and across the darkening school grounds Lily could make out the enormous figure of Hagrid the gamekeeper heading towards his hut situated near the forbidden forest. And so it was that, that Saturday, Lily, Frank, Remus and Alice were to be found knocking on the door of Hagrid's hut.  
  
"He's not in" Frank said happily as he started to walk away "Lets go before he gets back!"  
  
"We're staying!" Lily said pulling Frank back to the door "You just didn't knock loud enough"  
  
"If I knock too loud he may answer!" Frank said struggling to free himself from Lily's grasp,  
  
"I'll knock" Remus said walking up to the door and giving it two loud raps with his fist  
  
"There, he's not home lets go!" Frank said as he continued his struggles, two loud booming barks made Lily jump and let go of Franks arm sending him falling backwards into the dirt, Lily was about to turn to help Frank up when the hut's door opened, .  
  
"Who's there!" called a gruff voice as the door was pulled fully open. Lily's eyes widened as she took in the full view in front of her, she had only met Hagrid once while she was at Hogwarts and that was at the crossing over the lake, he had seemed pleasant enough then but now with the great man looming in front of her Lily had a feeling that this was a very bad idea.  
  
"'ello" Hagrid said and to Lily's pleasure she could distinctly see a smile form on Hagrid's face through the mass of hair that was his beard.  
  
"H-H-Hi" Lily said feebly as Frank whimpered on the ground behind her "W-We- "  
  
"We came to say hello" Alice said cutting off Lily's feeble attempt of communication "We thought that it was time to introduce ourselves"  
  
"Well ya better come in then" Hagrid said moving to one side to let the first years enter his hut as he smiled at them.  
  
The hut was a huge circular room with a large bed to one side and a roaring fire to the other, a large wooden scrubbed table stood in the middle of the room with three large wooden chairs around it and a huge arm chair was placed near the fire. Lots of different items where hanging from the ceiling like pots and pans and saws and other equipment that Lily assumed Hagrid used in his job as the schools gamekeeper. Near the fire and opposite the huge arm chair was a huge dog basket and hidden deep in the folds of a large patch work blanket that covered the basket was the biggest puppy that Lily had ever seen.  
  
"D-D-Did that make that barking we heard?" Frank asked hiding himself behind Alice as the friends entered the hut,  
  
"Yep" Hagrid said proudly "only got him the other day from a man in the pub"  
  
"He's really adorable" Alice said walking over to the puppy as Frank shot behind Remus "What's he called" Hagrid told them that the puppy didn't have a name yet and that he was hoping to find out its character before he named him.  
  
It was a nice afternoon that the first years spent with Hagrid he made them all tea and offered them some delicious looking rock cakes that turned out to be very aptly named. The puppy seemed to love the first years and he gambolled around the floor sometimes tripping over his large ears, occasionally he would even bash his head into the bed post and run to Hagrid whimpering,  
  
"Sounds like Frank" Alice had whispered to Lily as they shared the same huge chair and Frank who must have heard them shot them a venomous look.  
  
"Do you remember my parents?" Alice had asked and it turned out that Hagrid did, he told them all about how Alice's dad had been a bit of a tear away at school and he recounted some of the detentions that Alice's dad had spent with Hagrid,  
  
"Must run in the family" Lily heard Frank whisper to Remus. Eventually as the day worn on Lily managed to turn the conversation around to the topic of maps,  
  
"We was hoping to do this project you see"  
  
"On the history of Hogwarts" Remus added "so we was wondering if we could get hold of a map of the school"  
  
"So that we could talk about the different rooms and statues and stuff" Lily said  
  
"And find out all 'bout the different hidden passageways" Hagrid added smiling  
  
"No we- ...what hidden passageways" Frank said in surprise, Lily didn't know if Frank was surprised because Hagrid had guessed what the first years where up to or if it was the sudden revelation that Hogwarts had secret passageways.  
  
"Do ya know how many kids come to ask me 'bout the secret passageways" Hagrid said but Lily notice that he still wore a smile  
  
"Are we the first?" Frank said hopefully  
  
"No, but ya've been the best" Hagrid said happily "if ya really want a map then ya should ask professor McGonagall she's got a really big one in her study that she may let you borrow if ya ask nicely" They thanked Hagrid drank up their tea patted the puppy goodbye and headed back up to the great hall for dinner.  
  
'This was going to be really bad' Lily thought, stealing from McGonagall was going to be as bad as stealing from Dumbledore and Lily didn't relish the prospect of either.  
  
"We'll have to do it when no one will be about!" Remus whispered that evening as the girls sat in the first year boy's dormitory,  
  
"At night?" Amy asked pulling the bed sheet of the bed she was sitting on around her and Alice's shoulders,  
  
"No Filch will get us, and the ghosts seem to be more active at night" Frank pointed out rubbing his forehead "I don't think I could handle another run in with Peeves this life time"  
  
"When then?" Alice said "At break or dinner?"  
  
"They could be the best time's, everyone will be in the great hall" Dymphna said  
  
"It's too unpredictable, not all the teachers eat in the great hall" Remus reminded them as he sat cross legged on his bed  
  
"When then?" Amy asked and everyone in the room fell silent thinking  
  
"Transfiguration" Lily said suddenly breaking the silence,  
  
"You're as insane as Mi" Frank said shaking his head "You want to steal from Mgon' right under her nose?"  
  
"At least that way we'd know where she is" Lily insisted "we just need to create a diversion"  
  
"Peter will be useful in doing that" Dymphna said cheekily "he never can transfigure any of his stuff and all we'd have to do is take a lesson from James and Sirius by blowing it up!"  
  
"It's actually quite alarming how you girls think" Remus said smiling to himself "Talk about the fairer sex!"  
  
"And as if they can't get into enough trouble on their own they want to bring Miriam back" Frank said jokingly to Remus as they both grinned  
  
"The Ring leader!" Remus said laughing  
  
"Oi" Lily said throwing a pillow at Remus who then retaliated and by the time the girls left the dormitory the air was filled with feathers.  
  
Monday came faster then Lily had expected and still Miriam was not released from the hospital wing and the first years where not allowed to visit, so it was decided that that afternoon 'Operation obtain' (As Amy had named it) was to be put into action.  
  
'Operation obtain' was to commence fifteen minutes before the bell to signal the end of the lesson rang, and so Lily, Alice, Frank, Dymphna, Amy and Remus had to endure nearly an hour and a half of Professor McGonagall Lecturing them on their past behaviour has she also tried to get them to improve their transfiguration skills. Lily spent most of the lesson going over and over the plan that she and the others had concocted in her head rethinking every little detail and trying to guess the different aspects that could go wrong. It wasn't until Frank kicked her in the shin and pointed to his wrist watch that Lily realised that they where already five minutes behind schedule, cursing herself Lily gave Remus the signal for him to start part one of 'Operation obtain' appropriately named also by Amy as 'Operation Havoc'.  
  
Lily watched as Remus who had purposefully chosen to sit next to Peter pointed his wand towards Peter's half transformed Snail and uttered the spell he had been practicing since Sunday night, for a second Lily thought that the spell hadn't worked but then as Lily's hopes had started to fade Peters half transfigured Snail begin to make a whistling noise like a boiling kettle, before McGonagall could even open her mouth to ask what was going on Remus and Peter's table erupted in a thick cloud of dark purple smoke which instantly filled the room as loud bangs and whizzes shot out of the cloud like fire works. Dymphna and Amy screamed as they had planed they would and Alice yelled as she pretended to have hurt her ankle.  
  
"Quickly!" Remus said diving off his stool and grabbing Lily's wrist "If we're going to do it it's now or never" Lily, Remus and Frank ducked under the desks and made their way towards the door, Narrowly missing a collision with Professor McGonagall as she ran to find the still screaming girls in the thick smoke.  
  
The three friends having managed to get to the door slowly opened it and took off down the corridor heading to McGonagall's office as the smoke now billowed out into the corridor. It only took Lily, Remus and Frank thirty seconds to reach McGonagall's office which Lily guessed must have been record timing, Frank tried the door handle and to Lily's great surprise the door wasn't locked,  
  
"I guess she never thought anyone would want to steal anything" Frank said slyly a little out of breath as he pushed the door fully open, and all three friends entered the room. The office was as large as Lily's sitting room at home and there was a large desk in the centre of the room and a large roaring fire in the centre of the left hand wall. Opposite the door several small windows over looked the grounds where the first years had their flying lessons. The room itself was filled with lots of books and charts which Lily guessed McGonagall used in her lessons, shelves where stacked with lots of different objects and even more books. A huge Gryffindor banner hung above the fire, and Lily felt a pang of regret for what she and the others where about to do.  
  
"Let's get too it" Remus said pulling Lily out of her thoughts.  
  
"Right" Lily said moving back to the door, Lily's job was too keep a look out while Frank and Remus did the actual stealing,  
  
"Look in the draws" Lily hissed as both Frank and Remus rummaged around the books on the shelves,  
  
"Look at this!" Frank said excitedly pulling a slim book out from one of McGonagall's desk draws "Hearts aflame by S. Walls, The powerful story of a Saxon lord as he meets his match in Viking beauty, Callista. She could not know the torment that divided his soul, how he ached to hold her soft, supple-"  
  
"Put it back and look for what you came here for, not romance novels!" Lily hissed from the doorway,  
  
"Who would have guessed it?" Lily heard Frank mutter shaking his head as he closed the draw, Lily couldn't believe that Frank was even contemplating messing around when they only had a short amount of time before the smoke started to fade. Lily also knew that it was very possible that McGonagall may have also used a spell to have dispersed the smoke by now and that she could already be in a rage over her three missing students,  
  
"Found it!" Remus said joyfully pulling a huge map out from the middle draw, "It's got every thing we want look" Lily turned to see Remus pointing to the different levels that the map showed of the school,  
  
"Brilliant, now roll it up and let's get back" Lily hissed as she held the door open. Remus carefully folded the map up and stored it inside his robes before the three friends took off back down the corridor towards their classroom.  
  
They slowed to a walk as they turned the corner of the corridor where their lesson was being held and Lily felt ill when she saw that there was no longer any smoke pouring out of the open classroom door, reluctantly Lily, Frank and Remus crept nearer to thei classrooms door,  
  
"Well really girls" Lily could hear McGonagall saying from within the class "It was only some trifling smoke there was nothing to get so excite about" Just then the bell rang signalling the end of lessons and Lily, Frank and Remus pressed themselves against the wall as McGonagall dismissed the class, Luckily Alice, Dymphna and Amy where the first out of the door and Lily and her two thieving cohorts ducked into line with them.  
  
"How did it go?" Alice asked when they turned the corner as she handed Lily back her bag  
  
"We got it" Remus said smiling as he patted his robes where a slight bulge could be seen "What about you three?"  
  
"Operation havoc was a complete success" Amy said happily, "Mgon never even knew you three had gone-"  
  
"But Peter's got to do lines; she still thinks it was all his fault-"  
  
"But we know differently" Said James as he came around the corner with Sirius,  
  
"How could you do it Remus, your supposed to be Peter's friend?" Sirius said angrily  
  
"We are!" Frank replied but Sirius cut him off  
  
"Some friend Frank, Pete's in their now serving his sentence and he doesn't even know what he did wrong!" Sirius said bitterly. Lily felt even more awful at Sirius's words, true Peter Pettigrew wasn't one of Lily's most favourite Gryffindors but he had never been anything but pleasant to any of the girls,  
  
"I've half a mind to march right back to Mgon and tell her all about your three's privet field trip" Sirius said making Amy and Dymphna gasp  
  
"If you do that Si' then I'll be forced to tell the girls all about that thing you keep in your trunk" Frank retorted and at Frank's words Sirius's smug face fell,  
  
"F-Fine but I guess we all know where you've chosen to put your loyalties" Sirius said still looking a little shocked "It's time that you chose yours Remus"  
  
"That's completely unfair!" Remus begin before some finial years Ravenclaws jostled the first years out of their way,  
  
"Decide!" James said, and Remus did, he fished the map out of his robes and handed it to Lily and hanging his head he headed off down the corridor followed by Sirius and James.  
  
"That's so wrong" Dymphna said and Lily had to agree  
  
"Remus is a good guy" Frank said "and he knows that James and Sirius aren't that bad, not really"  
  
"How can you say that after what they just said to you?" Lily asked "They've practically booted you out of their dormitory"  
  
"Don't be so melodramatic" Frank said smiling "besides I'll make up with them tonight" Lily was about to ask how Frank was so sure but he answered the question before she could even ask it. Frank pulled a slim book out from his robes pocket and held it up for the girls too see, blazed across the front in lurid pink text was the title 'Hearts aflame' Franks face burst into a huge grin at Lily stunned impression,  
  
"How could you steal that?" Lily gasped her eyes fixed on the book in Franks hands  
  
"How could you steal that!" Frank said pointing to the map which Lily was grasping tightly across her chest.  
  
"That's different this is for a legitimate reason" Protested Lily  
  
"So is this" Frank said patting the book as he walked away down the corridor grinning from ear to ear.  
  
"What does Sirius keep in his Trunk?" Dymphna called after him, but Frank didn't answer. 


	20. Jedidiah and Ludo

**Chapter 20: -** Jedidiah and Ludo  
  
With the Map in the gangs possession Alice, Amy and Dymphna could now fulfil their main role of finding the safest and quickest route to the infirmary, but pretty soon they encountered another problem. The night of the robbery the Girls sat in their dormitory surveying the map as they spread it out on the floor,  
  
"That's the best route" Alice said tracing a line with her finger leading directly from Gryffindor tower down two flights of stairs and then directly to the infirmary,  
  
"Then what's the problem?" Amy asked  
  
"Filch" Lily reminded them all "how are we supposed to find out where he'll be?"  
  
"Someone's going to have to trail him" Amy said "You know like in the movies"  
  
"The what?" Alice and Dymphna both asked looking a little confused but Lily being Muggle born like Amy knew exactly what she had meant. And so it was that Frank and Lily's job was to find out the beat which Filch and Mrs Norris took on their night time check of the castle, it was impossible for them to stay out past curfew to observe Filch themselves, especially with Prefect Amanda Hugh-Genghis still breathing down the first years necks, so the only other why they could find out the information that they needed was to ask around. Lily and Frank soon discovered that Miriam's older brother Jedidiah and his best friend Ludo bagman was very knowledgeable on that part. They even plotted some of Filch's main paths on the stolen map,  
  
"The blue path is what he usually takes on Mondays" Jedidiah said as he penned it onto the map,  
  
"The Yellow and red one he alternates each Tuesday and Wednesday" Ludo said finishing his friends sentence  
  
"And the purple, green, mauve and orange is what he uses on the weekends and Thursdays" Jedidiah said pointing to each in turn with his quill  
  
"Now as for Fridays!" Ludo said taking Jedidiah's quill and enchanting it so it wrote in a shocking shade of pink "This is what we're pretty sure is his main path-"  
  
"But he pretty much makes that up as he goes along" Jedidiah said finishing his friend's sentence "or at least we think so"  
  
"You think?" Frank asked eyeing the map suspiciously  
  
"It's bloody well hard to track the man without that infernal cat seeing you!" Jedidiah said heatedly  
  
"Besides if you don't what our help!" Ludo said acting hurt as he rolled the map up and thrust it into his robes pocket,  
  
"We appreciate your help!" Lily said quickly grabbing the map back "don't we Frank!" Lily added as she elbowed Frank in the ribs,  
  
"Ouch! Y-Yeah we appreciate it a lot, Thanks" mumbled Frank rubbing his ribs with a look on his face that completely contradicted his words,  
  
"That's what we like to see!" Chimed Ludo "The young un's enjoying themselves!"  
  
"Just don't enjoy yourselves to much and remember if you are going to be strolling around at night-" At this lily tried to protest, she and Frank had told Jedidiah and Ludo that they were doing a class project on the school and staff, "-I know, I know you said the map is purely for research purposes-" at this Ludo scoffed but Jedidiah continued "But remember if you do go strolling tonight stay clear of the fourth floor because-"  
  
"Jed look at the time" Ludo cut in as he looked at his watch "We're gonna miss the sixth year girl fight in the quad if we don't hurry"  
  
"See ya!" Jedidiah called as he and Ludo took off down the corridor,  
  
"Wait!" lily called but it was no use the two fourth years where hurtling down the corridor like bats out of hell, knocking over a couple of second years as they skidded around the corner "What do you think Jedidiah was going to warn us about?" Lily asked Frank as the two friends turned bewildered faces to each other.  
  
"I bet it was just some stupid made up rubbish that he was going to say just to try and scare us" Frank said nonchalantly  
  
"You think so?"  
  
"Yeah, just forget about it" Frank said rolling the map up and storing it safely in his bag. "So are we all set now?"  
  
"I think so?" Lily said trying to think of anything that she could have missed  
  
"Good then we'll did tonight" Frank said  
  
That evening when Lily was sure that every other Gryffindor was safely in their dormitories, she, Alice, Dymphna and Amy crept down the spiralled staircase, towards the common room, the girls moved as silently as they could down the stairs and even though it was well passed midnight some of the older girls dorms still had lights shining through the gap beneath the doors, Lily could even hear the conversations of the sixth years talking about the different boys that they fancied  
  
"He's so dreamy" one of the girls said,  
  
"No way Jedidiah's more athletic he's got the body as well as the looks" the girl's friend said  
  
"Your both so sad, Tad, Jed's brother is very dashing and his got brains I love a man with brains" Lily nearly lost her footing when she heard this because the voice belonged to prefect Amanda Hugh-Genghis, Lily wasn't the only one who was shocked by what Amanda had said Alice was struggling to stop herself from laughing as where Dymphna and Amy. Lily made a mental note that she would have to tell Miriam about what they had heard and the girls quickly hurried down the remaining stairs and into the common room where they all burst out laughing.  
  
"Who'd have guessed it?" Dymphna said clutching her side  
  
"What's so funny?" Frank asked as he stood next to the common room fire  
  
"We'll tell you later" Lily said as she ushered them over to the portrait hole, The fat lady complained as her portrait was opened and yelled at the first years to get back into bed,  
  
"Keep your dress on!" Frank said as he closed the portrait behind him "we'll be back soon"  
  
"Back soon! You're not even supposed to be out!" the fat lady called after them as they headed down the corridor, Lily was glad that she had reminded everyone how cold the castle could get outside the comfort of the common room and they were all dressed appropriately wearing thick scarves and gloves and all five of them where dressed in jumpers and jeans.  
  
"Didn't Remus want to come?" Lily heard Alice ask Frank as they continued down the corridor,  
  
"Of cause he did!" Frank said sounding a little hurt "but he's not feeling too well so he said he'd cover for me if James and Si ask where I've gone"  
  
"Did they like their little present?" Dymphna said trying to hide her smirk with the stolen map  
  
"Oh Yes" Frank said nodding his head vigorously "MGon is one naughty teacher!"  
  
"Eeeew" Lily heard Amy groan from behind the group, they moved along the corridor and down two flights of stares in quiet.  
  
"That reminds me" Dymphna said as she followed the route they had penned out on the map and turned another corner "What does Sirius keep in his trunk?"  
  
"I couldn't possibly tell you guys that" Frank said innocently "if you knew then I wouldn't have anything to blackmail him with"  
  
"Don't tell us then" Alice said "We'll guess it instead"  
  
"Yeah and if we guess right you have to tell us!" Amy said excitedly from the rear of the group but Frank didn't answer,  
  
"I bet it's a severed head!" Amy said, Frank still didn't say anything,  
  
"Don't be silly it's probably something really mundane" Alice said "like underwear"  
  
"Dirty undies" Amy said "I bet Si's really disgusting and doesn't take his stuff to the laundry"  
  
"Dirty girlie undies!" Dymphna said as she led them down another flight of stairs "I bet he's a fetish queen!"  
  
"No!" Frank said trying to stop himself from laughing "you're all way off, but Merlin knows I love a girl who tries"  
  
"I bet Mi would have guessed what it was right away" Amy said a little down hearted,  
  
"Yeah, but knowing Miriam she wouldn't bother about guessing she'd just find out first hand" Lily said ginning  
  
"Too right" Dymphna said happily  
  
"That'll be our first task when we get her back" Amy said joyfully  
  
"What? To find Si's underwear?" Frank said "I couldn't possibly let you do that, Sorry but a mans underwear is his personally domain"  
  
"Eeeew" Lily heard Amy say again and Dymphna giggled,  
  
"Spoil sport" all the girls said together  
  
"So what shall we do when Mi -" Amy said but Dymphna cut across her  
  
"Shush" Dymphna said as she stopped near the end of the corridor "I think I hear something?"  
  
"Filch?" Alice asked as she moved closer  
  
"No I don't think so? It's coming for there!" Dymphna said pointing to the classroom door opposite them,  
  
"Do you think it's one of the ghosts?" Lily asked nervously as she moved closer to Alice straining her ears to listen.  
  
"Probably?" Alice said in a dead whisper as Frank edge closer to the girls  
  
"Please don't let it be Peeves" Lily heard Frank mumble next to her, But Frank didn't get his wish, no sooner had her uttered the words then the poltergeist shot out of the classroom door and came to an abrupt stop in front of the First years.  
  
Peeves must have recognised Lily, Frank and Alice from their last encounter because he took several seconds to look at each of the friends in turn, finally satisfied that Miriam wasn't with the group he smiled malevolently and sucked in a mighty breath and yelled,  
  
"STUDENTS OUT OF BED, STUDENTS OUT OF BED!!!" Lily had a strong urge to pull out her wand and to curse the annoying poltergeist on the spot but she didn't know any curses and even if she had she was pretty sure none would have worked on him. Frank remembering the nasty cut that he had received from the Black and white photograph of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team of 1901 which had collided with his face the last time they had encountered Peeves yelled for the girls to run and he grabbed Alice's hand and started pulling her down the corridor, quickly followed by Lily, Dymphna and Amy.  
  
The friends made a sharp right and headed down another set of steps and through an opening near a large statue,  
  
"Great!" Lily said exasperatedly as they emerging from the statue as she looked around and then down at the map that Dymphna still carried "This is the fourth floor!",  
  
"So?" Frank said making his way down the corridor  
  
"So Jedidiah and Ludo was trying to tell us to keep away from here" Lily reminded him,  
  
"So?" Frank said again as he still continued his path down the corridor holding  
  
"So they didn't want us around here!" Lily protested  
  
"They where just trying to scare us" Frank said casually  
  
"Oh now you act like mister cool" Alice said pulling her hand free of Franks grasp and making him jump,  
  
"Look if we go to the end of this corridor then we'll almost be at the infirmary" Dymphna said gazing at the map and cutting off any further protests from both Frank and Lily.  
  
"Fine" Lily said sighing but still not convinced. The friends had only just started down the corridor when they heard a distant noise of a crash and a yell, Frank, followed by the girls quickly headed to the adjoining corridor where the noise was heard and was immediately sent crashing to the floor as two dark, large figures collided with him, The girls screamed and rushed to help Frank,  
  
"What the hell are you half pints doing here?" Roared an angry voice that Lily recognised, pulling himself off Frank one of the dark clad figures removed his balaclava to reveal a cascade of silky black hair and startling blue eyes that where looking at the girls in vengeance, it was Jedidiah Artemis.  
  
"I told you lot to stay away for here!" Jedidiah said furiously as he hauled the other dark figure to their feet, that, Lily assumed must be Ludo Bagman, Frank moaned miserably, as he clutched his ankle and Alice rushed to see if he was ok.  
  
"Don't hang around here you twits!" said Ludo's muffled voice from behind his balaclava,  
  
"Yeah if you hadn't guessed it we're in a bit of a hurry -" Jedidiah said quickly picking up his dropped bag which Lily was alarmed to see was wriggling and squeaking  
  
"Fly then you fools fly!" Ludo yelled pushing Frank out of his way as he and Jed pelted down the corridor,  
  
"Er – what just happened?" Frank said rubbing his ankle and grimacing in pain,  
  
"I don't know" Lily confessed "but I don't think we should hang around to find out!"  
  
"Too right!" yelled the voice of Jedidiah as he and Ludo raced back up the corridor towards them,  
  
"That ways kind of – well occupied if you know what we mean?" Ludo called at them,  
  
"Run for Merlin's sake run!" Jedidiah yelled at the utterly bewildered first years as he grabbed hold of Lily and Dymphna's hands and pulled them down the corridor as Ludo did the same with Alice and Amy,  
  
"Fine!" Frank yelled still on the floor holding his injured ankle "I'll make my own way shall I?"  
  
"Just keep running" Jedidiah told Lily and Dymphna as he pushed them down the corridor and ran back to Frank, Lily looked over her shoulder to see Jedidiah pulling Frank effortlessly into a Muggle fire mans lift before he followed the others down the corridor and despite the weight of Frank and the still squeaking and squirming bag Jedidiah managed to catch them up. Ludo led the group down the corridor and made a sharp left down an adjuring corridor and down a flight of stairs and along another side corridor which Lily recognised as the charms corridor.  
  
"Do you think we could stop now, please?" Frank demanded from Jedidiah's shoulders "As much as I appreciate your help I'm beginning to wish you left me"  
  
"Shut up!" Lily heard Jedidiah hiss darkly,  
  
"Fine but I feel it's my responsibility to tell you I'm gonna be sick and I won't be held accountable for what happens – Ouch!" Lily turned to see that Jedidiah had immediately dropped Frank to the floor.  
  
"Thanks" Frank said bitterly now rubbing his backside as well as clutching his ankle,  
  
"W- W- What w- was that a-all ab-about" Alice panted clutching a stitch in her side as Dymphna and Amy collapsed against the wall breathing heavily. Lily knew how they felt she was exhausted and very shaken, her legs felt like jelly and she would have voiced her own thoughts if she wasn't gasping for breath. Lily was amazed however to see that neither Jedidiah nor Ludo was the least bit out of breath.  
  
"Look we never asked you why you wanted Filch's regular inspection routes" Jedidiah said dusting off his black trousers  
  
"Yeah so don't ask us what we we're up to and we'll not ask you" Ludo said folding his arms and looking at the first years critically,  
  
"Fine!" Frank said struggling to his feet "I've just got one question"  
  
"What?" both Jedidiah and Ludo demanded in unison,  
  
"What's with the get up?" Frank said indicating the clothes that both boys where wearing. Both Jedidiah and Ludo where wearing identical black shoes, black trousers and black turtleneck jumpers and Ludo unlike Jedidiah was still wearing his balaclava,  
  
"It our - our" Ludo said before he shot a look at Jedidiah  
  
"It's got nothing to do with you" Jedidiah said folding his arm and staring grimly at Frank  
  
"Whatever, I only asked" Frank answered nonchalantly as he struggled to hide a smirk and to hold his balance,  
  
"Shut it Longbottom" Ludo said as Jedidiah's bag squeaked and wriggled violently and both fourth year boys looked at it in horror,  
  
"Keep your mouths shut about this" Jedidiah said leaning into Frank "And we'll forget that we ever saw you guys hobbling around here after curfew" and to enhance his point he jabbed a finger into Frank's shoulder making Frank stagger backwards,  
  
"It works both ways" Lily said surprising herself with her own daring, "How do you think Miriam will react when she finds out your trying to intimidate her friends"  
  
"We're not scared of Miriam" Ludo retaliated his tone indicating his amusement at Lily's words, Jedidiah obviously thought differently,  
  
"Speak for yourself" Jedidiah said "All Artemis women scare me!"  
  
Lily suppressed her sudden urge to laugh at Jedidiah's comment it was hard to believe that anything scared the burly fourth year let alone his own sister who was just over half his height.  
  
"Look" Jedidiah said holding his hands up in a sign of truce "We know that your trying to see Miriam but quiet frankly she doesn't want to see you"  
  
"What do you mean?" Frank asked  
  
"Who do you think insisted that they didn't want any visitor?" Jedidiah said plainly  
  
"No!" Lily said in shock  
  
"I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news" Jedidiah said  
  
"He's not really" Ludo said shaking his head  
  
"The point is Mi was the one who said she didn't what you lot in there"  
  
"Your lying" Alice said "Miriam wouldn't, she's our friend"  
  
"Look you brats can believe what the damn well like and you can stand around here all night and get caught by filch-" Jedidiah said angrily  
  
"We don't care either way" Ludo said cutting across Jedidiah  
  
"Too right!" Jedidiah continued "But my sister doesn't want to see you. None of you!" at this Jedidiah and Ludo pushed passed Frank making him over balance and fall to the ground as they headed back down the corridor and disappeared into the dark,  
  
"Thanks!" Frank called after them in a mock cheery voice "Thanks for nothing,"  
  
"Miriam wouldn't do anything like that" Alice said sounding a little bewildered  
  
"Now what do we do?" Amy asked  
  
"Your all acting as thought the worlds over" Lily said looking at the Alice, Dymphna's and Amy's depressed faces "as far as I see the plans not change we came to see Mi and we're going to see her!"  
  
"I whole heartily agree" Frank said struggling to get to his feet "I was thinking of going to the infirmary anyway so I'm so glad the boys could oblige us with a real excuse"  
  
"Come here and quit whining" Alice said as she moved over to help support Frank  
  
"Lead the way then Dymph" Lily told Dymphna who was still holding the map Dymphna nodded and headed back down the corridor followed by Amy and Lily, Frank and Alice took the rear as he hopped on one foot with Alice still supporting him.  
  
"Why was it me they decided to threaten and intimidate" Lily heard Frank moan from the behind her,  
  
"Because their good boys really and they don't want the reputation of scaring little girlies" Lily heard Alice say "but obviously with you they made an exception"  
  
"Oh right.... HAY!" 


	21. End of a tether

**Chapter 21: -** End of a tether  
  
Dymphna led the group back up the stairs and across the corridor that they had fled down previously by now the touches on the walls where fading as they burnt themselves out and Lily wondered how long they had actually been wondering around the castle and she cursed herself for not having worn her wristwatch.  
  
"If we take this corridor" Dymphna said referring to the map "Then we've gotta go past Six.... No Seven turn offs before we head down the eighth and directly to the infirmary"  
  
"Are you sure?" Frank asked as he leaned on the wall for extra support  
  
"Yes!" Dymphna snapped "I can read maps you know!"  
  
"Right!" Lily said quickly cutting off any retort that may have been coming "I know we're all a little shook up but we'll be seeing Mi soon and I promise it'll all be worth it"  
  
"Yeah" Alice said "she'll straighten it all out"  
  
"I can't wait to see her face when we get there" Amy said excitedly "She'll be really surprised"  
  
Lily hoped that Miriam would be surprised to see them but she also hoped that Miriam wanted to see them, and she especially hope that what Jedidiah had said was some sort of sick joke. Lily joined Alice to help support Frank as the group moved on.  
  
"Four" Frank called as they passed another turn off,  
  
"Shut up and count in your head" Dymphna said irritably over her shoulder as she and Amy led the group down the corridor  
  
"Five!" Frank said belligerently  
  
"Frank shut up!" Dymphna hissed again but this time through clenched teeth, Lily could tell that tempers where beginning to fray but either Frank hadn't noticed this or he no longer cared. The five friends had been walking down the corridor for what had seemed like an age and lily's legs where aching from all the running that they had done that evening, and even though Dymphna had promised that they where drawing ever nearer their destination it seemed like they'd never get to the infirmary.  
  
"Six!" Frank called again as he hopped along being supported by Lily and Alice. Lily knew that the pain she felt must be nothing compared to that which Frank must have been feeling from his injured ankle, Lily could even feel Frank shudder from the shooting pain he got every time he hopped another step, and it was due to this that he was getting very irritable.  
  
"Seven" Frank called out as they passed another turn off,  
  
"Shut up Frank, for Merlin's sake shut up, you'll get us all caught!" Dymphna yelled at the top of her lungs. Frank had insisted on calling out all the turnings of the adjoining corridors as he passed, and even though they where all supposed to be keeping a low profile the wear of the night plus the lack of sleep and the revelations that the reason they hadn't seen their friend in several weeks was because she hadn't wanted to see them was taking it's toll. Lily however thought that it was a bit rich of Dymphna to start telling Frank to be quite considering that she and Amy had been talking all evening and that they hadn't seemed too concerned about getting caught then,  
  
"You shut up!" Frank yelled back "I'm in pain here!"  
  
"We're all in pain here" Lily heard Alice mutter as Frank still leaned on her  
  
'Great' Lily thought 'dissension!' If they continued as they were Lily could feel that there wouldn't be five friends returning to Gryffindor tower tonight, because they would have probably all have fallen out, or if not Dymphna would be hauled off to Prison for murder and Lily, Amy and Alice would be have to be charged as accessories.  
  
"This one's it!" Amy said excitedly as she pointed to the corridor to their left, the group hurried as fast as they could towards it Frank grimacing against the pain. They turned the corner of the adjourning corridor and stopped dead in their tracks.  
  
"Well, well, well, what have we hear?" Said a dry grizzled voice,  
  
"Eight!" Frank gulped as he, Lily, Alice, Dymphna and Amy looked up at the dark shadowy figure that towered over them; Argus Filch.  
  
The skeletal form of Mrs Norris was winding her way around her master's legs as she glared at the five friends with her huge lamp like eyes,  
  
"Isn't it enough that the headmaster gives you a free run of the castle during the day?" Filch asked grimly "You now what to wonder around at night", The friends didn't answer, and Mrs Norris meowed loudly,  
  
"Yesss my preciousss" Filch said as though replying to his cat, but he was still staring at the students in front of him his eyes unmoving,  
  
'He's gone mad!' Lily thought too herself, as the cat meowed again  
  
"Yes I see it too, I'm guessing that's professor McGonagall's missing map?" filch said eyeing up Dymphna who was holding the map and she squeaked at the sudden thought of being singled out, "We'll see what the professor has to say about this" Filch said as he moved back down the corridor the first years had just come from.  
  
The Lily, Frank, Alice, Dymphna and Amy just stood motionless as Filch moved passed them he seemed much more imposing at night then he had ever done during the day, Filch hadn't even told the five friends to follow him and Lily had the sudden urge to run away, back to Gryffindor tower but a loud hiss abruptly shook lily out of her thoughts as she noticed Mrs Norris standing in front of her, Amy gasped in fright and the five friends hurried off after Filch and their awaiting punishments.  
  
They had been so close to the infirmary that Lily was sure she could have seen the double doors through the darkness behind filch, and instead of sitting on comfy hospital beds and talking to Miriam while they recouped the five friends where trudging back down the corridor they had just come from. Lily cursing herself as she and Alice still helped to support Frank, Why she hadn't told Frank and Dymphna to have been quiet? Why hadn't she decided to have called it a night after their near miss with Jedidiah and Ludo? What would happen to them now Lily didn't know and that scared her. They had broken into Professor McGonagall's office and had stolen her map and had also been found wondering around the school in the middle of the night, and then there was the fact that Jedidiah and Ludo had been up to something!  
  
What if she and the others got stuck with the blame for that? And how would McGonagall react to finding out that they'd broken yet another school rule? And how would the house react to having more points being deducted!?! Lily felt sick inside it had seemed such a good plan, go to the infirmary and see Miriam, but now the more Lily thought about it the more it seemed so stupid.  
  
The first years reluctantly followed Filch down a set of stairs and through a passage behind a tapestry, Lily and Alice still helping to support Frank, emerging from the tapestry Lily found herself in a corridor that she had never been down before, Filch led the group to a door which was flanked by two large ugly looking stone gargoyles,  
  
"Wait here" Filch told them as he knocked on the door and entered closing it behind him, the plaque on the door read 'Staffroom'.  
  
"Well, looks like we've got a herd of midnight mischief makers" said a gruff voice beside Lily, She span round quickly but the only thing that was next to her was one of the stone statues,  
  
"Boy are they going to get it!" Chirped another voice from the other side of the door,  
  
"Shut up!" Frank said irritably looking from one statue to the next,  
  
"Oooooo" both of the statues chimed,  
  
"What you been up to then?" The statue next to Lily asked causing her to jump again, she had only just got used to the idea that paintings and photos in the magical world could move and speak and the idea that statues also had wills of their own was still unnerving.  
  
"Knocking the heads off annoying masonry" Frank snapped in reply to the statues question,  
  
"Oooooo" Both of the statues chorused again before the realisation of Frank's words hit them "What?!"  
  
"HELP!!!" cried the far statue "get it away from me! HELP!"  
  
'Great!' Lily thought that was all they needed, adding the mental breakdown of sculptures to the list of other things they had done that night. The Gargoyle was still yelling when the door to the staffroom was pulled opened and a furious looking McGonagall was standing in the doorway, her lips narrowed as she eyed the first years and her eyes where practically slits as she scowled at them. Lily noticed that McGonagall was dressed in a red tartan dressing gown, and the hem of her nightdress could be seen below it just slightly covering the tartan slippers that she worn, Lily thought that it was extremely strange that McGonagall should be dressed for bed when she had been in the Staff room, but Lily was instantly brought back to the predicament in hand as professor McGonagall spoke,  
  
"Will you be quite!" McGonagall raged at the still screaming statue which immediately fell silent "Thank you, now you five inside now" Amy reluctantly led the group into the staff room followed by Dymphna then Alice, Lily and Frank who was still being support by the two girls,  
  
"Boy are you going to get it!" Lily heard the statue that she had been standing next to say as McGonagall closed the door. The staffroom was a long panelled room full of old mismatched chairs and tables, a huge roaring fire was situated at one end and at the other end tucked away into a corner was a old wooden wardrobe. McGonagall strode across the room and sat in a low armchair, wrapping her nightgown around herself as she sat, after awhile she spoke,  
  
"Mr Filch informs me that you five where found wandering around the school" McGonagall said indicating Filch who was standing behind the group near the door.  
  
As one the five first years nodded.  
  
"Even though you are all aware of the expressed desires of the headmaster that you shouldn't leave your common rooms after curfew?"  
  
Again they all inclined their heads.  
  
"And even though I know for a fact that this is not the first time you have been caught out of bounds by a member of the faculty?" Lily heard Alice stifle a gasp and so had McGonagall, "Yes miss Potter I know all about your last midnight adventure and unlike the headmaster I am not tolerant of such behaviour from members of my house, do I make myself clear?"  
  
Again all the first years nodded as one.  
  
"Do you have anything to say for yourselves on this matter?" McGonagall said with a touch of finality in her voice but Amy didn't seem to take the hint,  
  
"We only wanted to see Miriam, Professor, we've not seen her in ages!" Lily saw one of McGonagall's eyebrows raise slightly and her mouth slowly relaxed a little,  
  
"I some times forget how hard it is for the friends of those who become ill" McGonagall said softly "but your desperation does not fully explain your actions" McGonagall said this last part as she held the map up in font of the first years, "This I believe belongs to me, explain" The first years all rushed to explain all at the same time,  
  
"One at a time please" McGonagall said holding her hand up to stop them, "Mr Longbottom if you please" Frank sighed at being singled out and then reluctantly plunged into a brief account of what had happened. Lily noticed that Frank's version of events was slightly different to what had really happened; Frank shouldered all the blame for the disturbance in their Transfiguration class, saying that it was he that had sabotaged Peter's work when in actual fact it had been Remus. Frank also said that he was solely responsible for the theft of McGonagall's map and that the girls didn't know anything about it until he had told them, Frank also made it sound like the map was already marked with colour coordinated routes of Filch's beat he finally ended by saying that Dymphna was a poor map reader and that it was because of her that he had tripped down some stairs and had hurt his ankle. This gained Frank a stern look from Dymphna but Lily was thankful that she hadn't taken it any further.  
  
"Then it was indeed a good thing that your destination was the infirmary" McGonagall said as she looked at the first years over her glasses, "Very well follow me please, thank your Argus that will be all"  
  
"What no punishments?" Filch said in an usually shocked high voice  
  
"I did not say that, I will personally ensure that each of them will receive a punishment but considering the nature of their crime I will not be ducting any house points, Good night Argus" The first years followed McGonagall out of the staff room and back through the tapestry they had came through, up yet more stairs and back down the corridor that they had been walking down when they had been caught by Filch, Lily was amazed to see that instead of taking the group back to Gryffindor tower professor McGonagall was in fact leading them to the infirmary. McGonagall pushed open the doors to reveal that even though it was well passed one am the infirmary was a bushel of activity.  
  
The Infirmary was very dark but by the candle light the surrounded the only occupied bed Lily saw Madam Pomfrey mixing up a potion with a mortar and pestle, the potion smelt vile and Lily and the others gagged slightly as the smell hit her nostrils. Standing around the bed talking to Madam Pomfrey was professor Dumbledore and another Wizard whom Lily had never seen before. The other wizard was the same age as the headmaster but where Dumbledore was tall and thin the other man was slightly shorter and quite stout, and unlike Dumbledore the stranger was clean shaven and had snow white hair with bushy side-whiskers and was dressed in an elegant black three piece tail suit with a white waist coat and hung around his neck was a gold medallion that was attached to a red ribbon. Finally Lily's eyes fell onto the occupant of the bed, it was Miriam and she looked extremely board as the adults stood around her talking amongst themselves.  
  
"Minerva?" the unknown wizard in a deep voice as he abruptly ended the conversation with the headmaster and Madam Pomfrey as he spotted the first years and their head of house at the door and he strode forwards, "I thought that we agreed that Mi didn't want any visitors?"  
  
Now that Lily could see the wizards face it struck her that he cast a strong remembrance to Thaddeus and Jedidiah Artemis, Miriam's older brothers, he had Thaddeus' long nose and Jedidiah's strong jaw line, Lily suddenly realised that this must be Miriam's grandfather.  
  
"Miss Artemis do you understand how much trouble your friends have got themselves into on your behalf?" Professor McGonagall said ignoring Miriam's grandfather as she strode past "Now you must stop this silliness immediately!"  
  
"Minerva!" Miriam's grandfather growled once more in his deep commanding voice as Lily saw Miriam smile timidly at her friends,  
  
"This is not the place for you two to start another argument" Madam Pomfrey said as she bustled over to the now arguing grandfather and professor,  
  
"Poppy is in deed right Amadeus" Dumbledore said as he moved over to join the adults. Taking this opportunity the five friends headed over to Miriam's bedside,  
  
"I'm so sorry" Miriam said softly shaking her head "I never meant for you to get into trouble"  
  
"We know you didn't" Alice said finally leaving Frank's side as he flopped onto a near by bed "But why didn't you want us here?" Miriam sighed as the girls sat down on her bed  
  
"It wasn't initially my idea," Miriam said her voice sounding weaker then what Lily had remembered "Madam Pomfrey didn't want me to have any visitors at first because she said I had to rest, but – well after that I – I just didn't feel like I wanted to see you guys"  
  
"Why?" Lily asked a little shocked,  
  
"I don't know I – I just felt sick with myself – it's not pleasant, having this – this – being me"  
  
"I can smell!" Frank said pointing the potion madam Pomfrey had been making "What is it?"  
  
"My medicine apparently" Miriam said in disgust "It actually tastes worse then it smells"  
  
"Well as long as it makes you feel better that's all that matters" Alice said reassuringly  
  
"Just as long as you don't come back smelling like it" Frank said laughing,  
  
"Yeah" Miriam laughed dryly "That's if I come back! My parents are thinking of pulling me out of Hogwarts all together that's why my grandfather is here, Mother says that Hogwarts isn't safe for me but grandfather whats me to stay"  
  
"We want you to stay! We also want you back!" Alice said in disbelief at what Miriam had just said  
  
"We need you!" Frank said "This place is dull without you!"  
  
"Dull?" Miriam said smiling slightly "After you get dragged in here by MG and you have a broken ankle and you're all dressed in thermal jumpers and its 1:30am!"  
  
"Yeah well we had to amuse ourselves some how didn't we?" Frank said smiling broadly and the friends all laughed.  
  
"I think the youngsters may have sorted this little problem out for us" Lily heard Dumbledore say as the adults turned to see the six friends laughing and joking  
  
"Ah the joys of youth" Amadeus, Miriam's grandfather said as he beamed at the first years. 


	22. Return to the fold

**Chapter 22: -** Return to the fold

The friends were allowed to spend the next hour talking while madam Pomfrey forced Miriam to drink her medicine and magically mended Frank's ankle, which he had only sprained. While the six friends talked Miriam's grandfather, Dumbledore, Madam Pomfrey and professor McGonagall discussed Miriam's future at Hogwarts. It turned out that Miriam's mother had never wanted Miriam to come to Hogwarts and after the incident that had led to Miriam's hospitalisation she was clamouring for either Miriam's removal from the school or for Miriam to be resorted into Slytherin house as she claimed that it would be better for Miriam's condition if she was closer to her brothers. However Miriam's grandfather thought otherwise.

It turned out that despite the high reputation that Miriam's parents had within the wizarding community it was in fact Miriam's grandfather that currently held all the wealth and titles that the Artemis family was renowned for, and so the old wizard had come to see his only granddaughter and to offer his support for Miriam's wishes to remain at the school.

"He's really good" Miriam said affectionately as she looked at her grandfather who was standing with the two professors across the aisle and he gave her a little wink and a wave coursing McGonagall to turn and look at the six friends very critically.

"I'm surprised your folks aren't up here right now I know my mother would be," Frank said looking towards the hospital wings doors as though his mother was going to burst through them any minute "She'd probably wouldn't let me out of her sight if I had....." Frank trailed away knowing he'd said too much.

"If you had what I've got" Miriam said finishing Franks sentence and lily was relived to she that Miriam smiled "Believe me if my father had his way I wouldn't be allowed to do anything he'd cast me in a permanent cushioning charm if he could just to make sure I wouldn't get hurt!"

"But-?" Amy said looking a little confused "But you do loads of stupid things!"

"Thanks!" Miriam scoffed still smiling

"I think she means if your parents don't let you do anything how come you're so good at flying and you told me you help your brother practice Quidditch over the summer?" Lily said

"Well what they don't know won't kill them right?" Miriam said smiling even more broadly "But if mother knew she'd kill Jedidiah and maybe even Thaddeus just to make sure she's covered all the angles" The six friends laughed again,

"No Minerva we've already been through this!" Lily heard Miriam's grandfather say,

"Mi what's that thing your Grandfather's wearing around his neck?" Lily asked as she looked over her shoulder at the adults,

"What? Oh that," Miriam said sounding slightly board "That's the Artemis family crest it's been passed down from father to son for years, when Grandfather pops his clogs dad gets it and then Tad after him....Why?

"Nothing really I was just curious that's all why does he wear it around his neck though?" lily asked still looking at Miriam's grandfather, but it was Frank who replied,

"Remember our little talk in the Owlery" Frank said in a hushed voice that also conveyed a warning,

"What have you been saying Longbottom?" Miriam demanded

"Nothing!" Frank said holding his hands up "Just – You know – the truth" Frank said cringing away from Miriam's stare,

"Thanks not only am I a freak but you've told them I'm aristocratic freak"

"Royal freak" Frank said diving across the other side of the bed as Miriam swung her pillow at it "I only told them the truth, it's not like they can't read about it!" But Miriam didn't look like she appreciated it either way. And unfortunately the adults had seen what had happened also.

"Mi" Her grandfather said his voice sounding tired as he raised one of his bushy eyebrows,

"Miss Artemis please don't agitate yourself" Madam Pomfrey said as she came bustling over to her bed,

"I do believe that you five have had enough excitement for one night" Professor McGonagall said as she too headed over towards the group and began to Shepard them towards the doors, Lily, Frank, Alice, Dymphna and Any quickly said their goodbyes before they headed out of the Infirmary. Lily took one last look over her shoulder as McGonagall closed the door and she was pleased to see Miriam smiling.

McGonagall led the group of first years back down the corridor that they had walked three times that evening, but now after seeing Miriam and knowing that she was improving greatly the five friends felt almost joyful. Almost that is and not completely because as McGonagall reached the fat ladies portrait and gave her the password she turned to the first years and said,

"Mr Longbottom a certain book disappeared from my office the same day as my map, I would like it back please"

"I – I don't know what your talking about Professor" Frank sad innocently, "may be if you described it to me I could perhaps remember seeing it"

"No Mr Longbottom I must have been mistaken" McGonagall said glaring at him as she allowed the girls to climb through the portrait hole,

"I shall inform you all of your punishments soon", Lily heard McGonagall say as Frank climbed through and lily knew that the first years would soon be regretting Franks decision of stealing the professor's book.

Despite the fact that it was well past 2am when the first years climbed into bed they still had to get up at the normal time of seven and be washed and changed and down in the Great hall for breakfast at eight. Naturally Lily, Alice, Frank, Dymphna and Amy were all exhausted from the night's escapades, and Lily's legs still hurt her from all the running that they had done. Sleepily Lily helped herself to scrambled eggs as the rest of her dorm mates settled down next to her at the Gryffindor table, all of them dreading the fact that they still had an entire day of lesions to get through before they could return back to bed,

"Where did you two get to last night?" James asked as he sat next to Frank and Remus

"Yeah" Sirius said as he piled bacon, eggs and sausages onto his plate "Creeping out late at night makes me think you guys were up to something?"

"What are you talking about?" Frank asked faking his innocence

"They may as well know seeing mum and dad will soon find out from MG we -" Alice said as she pointed to the rest of the girls and Frank "- went to see Miriam last night and yes we got caught all right!"

"Oooh naughty sis" James said revelling in his sister's miss fortune "Mum'll be Fuming"

"So...err...how was she" Sirius said hanging his head a little,

"Loads better mate" Frank said cheerfully "You didn't kill her anyway, and I doubt you knocked any sense into her either"

"Yeah!" Sirius said trying to sound happy that Frank could make light of the situation but Lily just glared at him knowing too well that if it hadn't been for Sirius, Miriam wouldn't have been in the hospital wing at all,

"So what time did you two get back then?" Peter asked Remus a little timidly,

"Vot are Vou talking about Pete, Remy didn't come Vith us!" Frank said stuffing fried kidneys into his mouth,

"But – Where did you go then?" James asked accusingly as the rest of the first years turned to look at Remus,

"I...Well...I" Remus stammered as he started to flush red around his collar,

"May I have your full attention please?" Called a voice from the teachers table, and every head in the Great hall turned to see Professor Dumbledore standing up at the centre of the long teachers table, immediately everyone fell silent, and lily was sure she heard Remus breath a sigh of relief.

"Thank you" Dumbledore said lowering his hands "I know that it is very rear for me to make announcements during term but I have several important notices to convey to you all, The first is that it has come to my attention that despite my expressed wishes the number of students that are venturing from their common rooms outside of curfew has increased" Lily heard Dymphna gasp and James and Sirius both shot the first year girls very dirty looks, "This has I said at the start of term must stop. This is purely for your own safety as much as for your teachers' peace of mind, for those of you who are still unsure what your curfew times are please check with your house perfects. Curfews apply for all and means that you must be in your house common rooms at that time" lily shifted in her seat trying to act as innocent as she could at Dumbledore's words

"Also on an unrelated topic" Dumbledore continued "Professor Kettleburn has reported that a number of Nifflers from his care of magical creatures classroom has gone missing, this may however be purely coincidence or that the Niffler cages are not properly secure enough to contain the animals, but it is requested that if any of these creatures are seen _wondering_" Lily noticed that Dumbledore stressed the last word "then if you could kindly return them to Professor Kettleburn he will be eternally grateful. And finally on a topic that most of you will already be aware of and I hope are looking forward to is this Fridays Halloween celebrations" here there was a slight applause and excited whispers where passed between friends, "However what you do not know is that the esteemed Mr Amadeus Artemis" at the mention of Miriam's grandfathers name Lily could hear even more hushed excited voices "has kindly offered to provide the entertainment for the celebrations and even though he was unable to stay for breakfast as his business elsewhere demanded he leave early this morning I believe that a thank you is in order!"

Dumbledore clapped and the rest of the school followed suite, but it wasn't until Jedidiah Artemis stood up at the Slytherin table and started to bow and making elaborate flourishes and hand movements for each bow that the entire school burst into a raucous applause and even wolf whistles. Lily could see Ludo Bagman and some of the other fourth year Slytherin boys toasting Jedidiah with their pumpkin glasses and slapping him on the back,

"Show off" Frank said smiling pleasantly "What do you think he was up to last night?" Frank asked as he still clapped Jedidiah's continued antics,

"Thank you, Thank you your too kind" Jedidiah called out as he started to blow some of the older girls kisses which Lily notice had made some of the older Gryffindor girls become a little giggly.

"I don't know?" Lily said a little irritably "But whatever it was it's put him in a really good mood" lily said this as Jedidiah finally jumped on top of the Slytherin table knocking cups and plates to the floor in the process as he still continued to bow and blow kisses to his adoring fans, the fourth year boys cheered again and the girls next to them protested at the disruption to their breakfast, Lily assumed that the fourth year Slytherin girls were just as annoyed at Jedidiah as she and the first year Gryffindor girls were with James and Sirius.

"Master Artemis!" Professor Vindictus Viridian the head of Slytherin house called angrily as he headed over to the Slytherin table his face like thunder as he grabbed Jedidiah by the scruff of his robes and pulled him off the table, scattering even more plates and cups to the floor in the process before he marched Jedidiah out of the hall accompanied by a standing ovation from the fourth year Slytherin boys, as they whooped and cheered Jedidiah's continued antics until the huge oak doors of the great hall slammed closed behind Viridian and Jedidiah.

"What's happening with that lot?" James asked smiling as the students in the great hall settled back into normality

"Dunno?" Sirius said smiling "But for an Artemis Jed's pretty cool"

"Cool yeah!" Frank said smiling even broader "But as insane as his sister!" all the first year boys nodded in agreement and received very stern looks from Lily, Alice, Dymphna and Amy for doing so.

With the prospect of the Halloween feast to look forward to Lily found that the days leading up to the celebrations just flew past. In what felt like now time at all Lily found herself sitting at her usual place at the Gryffindor table with the other first year Gryffindors on the Friday morning of Halloween, when to everyone's utter surprise and pleasure Miriam walked into the great hall as though she had only just came from Gryffindor tower,

"What the?!" Frank said his mouth dropping in surprise, as Lily, Alice, Dymphna and Amy ran to hug Miriam.

"Surprise!" Miriam said holding her arms wide and ginning at the shocked looks on her friends' faces as she hugged them all in turn "Madam Pomfrey wanted me to spend the rest of next week in the hospital wing for further observations!" Miriam said in disgust as she settled herself at the Gryffindor table between Frank and Lily "But I told her I wasn't going to miss my first ever Halloween feast for anything, so as long as I don't overexert myself she's agreed that I can go free!" Miriam said beaming at her friends,

"You wait till father hears about this" The first years heard a voice call from across the room Lily, Miriam, Frank and Alice all turned to see Thaddeus and Jedidiah Artemis, Miriam's older brother's each followed by their own best friend come scurrying over to the Gryffindors. Jedidiah insisted on taking Miriam back to the hospital wing but Miriam refused to budge.

"She's as stubborn as you mate" Ludovic Bagman said cheerfully to Jedidiah as he helped himself to a pile of toast,

"You are looking a lot better" Lucius Malfoy said to Miriam flashing her a pearly white smile, which Lily thought made him look even more handsome, "Besides if Pomfrey really did think it necessary to have kept Mi in she'd be rushing after her now, wouldn't she?" Lily distinctly saw both of Miriam's Brothers turn to look at the entrance to the great hall, Ludo and Lucius laughed.

"She'll be fine, don't worry about her" Ludo said thrusting some toast at Jedidiah "Besides if you're that bothered we can follow her around all day!" At this Miriam tried to protest and so did Lily, Alice and Frank, the four friends hadn't seen each other properly in weeks but at Ludo's words Jedidiah gulped and complained that he couldn't do it even if he wanted to because as they both had Quidditch practice all day.

"You'll need it!" Calvin Skinner the Gryffindor Quidditch captain called from a few places away at the Gryffindor table "Gryffindor's going to thrash you this year Artemis"

"In your dreams skinny boy!" Jedidiah retaliated "Slytherins in top form this year"

"Yeah right from what I head Johnson can't hack it anymore!" Calvin called and at this many of the other Gryffindor Quidditch team laughed "I heard Johnson's not even turned up to any of your other practises this term"

"Damn right Johnson hasn't" Jedidiah said smiling

"Because unlike you losers" Ludo said joining in "We haven't had any other practice matches or training sessions yet, today's our first!"

"What!" Calvin said in surprise "N-not one?"

"You see that's how good we are" Ludo said grinning broadly "And even if the rumours about Johnson are true who do think is really in charge of the Slytherin team anyway"

"Figured as much!" Calvin called down the table as she glared at Jedidiah "Your family always manages to take over everything!"

"I'd watch what your saying if I was you" Thaddeus said grimly in a low voice that was only heard by Calvin and the neighbouring Gryffindors, unlike Calvin and Jedidiah's conversation which had been heard by the entire hall. Calvin now dissuaded from his bating stabbed his fork into his food and pretended that he hadn't heard Thaddeus' words.

"Does it always have to be this competitive?" Lily asked trying to break the silence that had fell on the group,

"Yep!" Jedidiah and Ludo both chorused together looking utterly blissful.


	23. All hallows

**Chapter 23: -** All Hallows

Because Miriam had insisted on being released from the hospital wing that day solely for the Halloween feast, Miriam's two brothers and their friends had insisted on dedicating the feast in her honour, and despite the disapproving comments of Prefect Amanda Hugh-Genghis the four houses for once seemed happy to be mingling together. Miriam's grandfather had stayed true to his word and had arranged for a wizarding band to play at the feast and he had also provided lots of other entertainment ranging from jugglers to fire eaters. Some of the teachers even decided to get in on celebrations by providing some type of entertainment as well.

Professor McGonagall and some of her advanced Newt students transfigured many of the cutlery into real live bats that swooped around the great hall, Hagrid had grown huge Pumpkins that had now been carved into Jack-o-Lanterns and little Professor Flitwick charmed them to hover above the long house tables so that they cast huge shadows over the floors and walls. Even Professor Iching the third year divination teacher was enjoying the fun and games as she was giving fortune readings in a small tent like structure at the back of the great hall where a large queue of giggling girls had started to form.

"This is the best Halloween I've ever had!" Lily called to Miriam over the noise of the near by fire eaters "Are all the Halloween's like this? Lily asked in amazement as the fire eaters in front of them spat a huge fountain of fire across the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, as many of the students whooped and gasped in awe.

"Not at all!" Frank yelled in reply "My dad said that the only good thing about Halloween at Hogwarts was the food! I think I would have remembered if he told me about this!" Frank said his mouth dropping as the fire eater spat more flames across the aisle in between the tables. All the students seemed to be enjoying themselves, even Sirius Black and James didn't seem to mind the patronage that had made it possible, the only person that did seem to mind was Bellatrix Black,

"Your Family always has to show off don't they!" She said bitterly to Miriam as she pushed herself past Alice at the Gryffindor table under the pretence that she was heading towards the queue of giggling girls near Professor Iching's tent,

Miriam ignore her, and reached for a sandwich off a nearby plate

"It's always the same you have to try and make it look as though your family is better than anyone else don't you?" Lily was pleased to see that Miriam still didn't retaliate and just started to eat her sandwich.

"Well!" demanded Bella pushing Miriam in the back "Your family thinks so much of themselves don't they?, I bet the daily prophet would love to hear about this wonderful party that your Granddaddy had us throw in your honour and all about your mysterious absence!"

"For some reason I don't think the flu is very news worthy" Miriam said finely her voice sounding very lazy, almost board, as she repeated the story that most of the teachers had been telling the other students to explain Miriam's long absence.

"Whatever! But I know the truth!" Bella said smiling eerily "Maybe you'd like another addition to your families scrap book? I could always arrange another shocking revelation" Bella had pushed it too far,

"Maybe you'd like to start your own family's scrapbook off with an obituary!" Miriam yelled as she leapt at Bella, and before Lily could do anything to stop them the two girls where on the floor kicking and punching each other, or at least Miriam was, Bella was screaming like a banshee and trying to pull Miriam's hair,

"GIRL FIGHT!!!" Yelled Frank jumping up onto the Gryffindor table as he beckoned the rest of the school as though it was the best thing to have ever happened! "Yeah! GIRL FIGHT!"

"Miriam stop it!!!" Lily called as she and Alice tried to pull Miriam off Bella,

"Mi please!" Alice begged as more and more students began to crowd round them and pushed the two girls aside Lily had never realised how many students there had been at Hogwarts but at Franks shout it felt like thousands of people rushed to crowd around the two fighting girls, Lily was pushed to the floor in the crush of bodies and only just managed to avoid being trod on by a burly sixth former as James pulled her onto the Gryffindor table top and Sirius pulled Alice under the table with him and Dymphna and Amy,

"Better stay up here" James said as Lily clung to him "at least it's safer"

"Who is it?" Lily heard the Thaddeus demand a look of concern on his face as he jumped onto the table next to lily as Professor sprout shouted at them to all get down as the other teachers tried to pull the crowd apart, "Tell me, who's Fighting?" Thaddeus demanded, but Lily could already tell that he knew,

"It's Miriam and Bellatrix!" Sirius called from under the table,

At the mention of his sister's name Thaddeus' face took on a very stern expression as he jumped off the table and rushed into the crowd followed by Bella's two older sisters as they pushed Peter Pettigrew out of their way and he climbed onto the table for safety. At the same instance at hearing Miriam's name Jedidiah and Ludo both dived onto the Gryffindor table scattering plates and food everywhere as both launched themselves cannonball style at the mull of students, suddenly the world around Lily looked as thought it was moving in slow motion as both older boys forced Peter out of their way as he slipped backwards off the table his arm flailing madly as he struggled and failed to keep his balance, Lily turned from Jedidiah and Ludo just in time to see peter crash into the near by fire eater making him accidentally spit out another fountain of fire just as Lily managed to pull James flat against the table as the flames roared over their heads narrowly missing the pair of them.

"Bloody hell!" James called out as the flames dissipated and James patted his hair trying to feel if it had been singed,

Lily's brain didn't have time to register the events that had just happened as the world suddenly returned to normal and loud screams signalled Jedidiah and Ludo's abrupt entrance into the centre of the crowd as many of the students scattered in fear of being hit or injured by the boys as they made their presence know, because of this the fight was soon dispersed, and Thaddeus was soon shoving the remaining students out of his path. The brothers pulled Miriam to her feet as Narcissa and Andromeda, Bella's sisters who had followed Thaddeus pulled Bella away from Miriam.

As Lily's head cleared and from her position on the table Lily managed to quickly look Miriam up and down as did her brothers all of them fearing the worst, but somehow Miriam hadn't even been scratched, whereas Bellatrix looked as though she had gone ten rounds with the Whomping willow and was blubbering her eyes out as she hung to her older sisters.

"What in Merlin's name possessed you?" Thaddeus demanded of his sister as Jedidiah struggled to hold Miriam back as she still tried to get to Bella,

"Miriam what's wrong with you!" Andromeda called over Thaddeus as she tried to comfort Bella,

"Hay don't you going putting all this on Mi" Jedidiah yelled back as stepped in front of his sister "I have you know that I saw everything!" Lily highly doubted that seeing that Jedidiah had been trying to chat up one of the female fire eaters at the time the fight had broken out but Lily felt a sudden surge of affection towards Jedidiah for wanting to stick up for his sister no matter what, after all Lily knew the truth and that it had been Bella that had provoked the fight.

"Master Artemis!" Roared Professor Viridian as he pushed his way passed several second year Hufflepuff boys making them flee back to their own table "I might have know that you where involved here!" At these words Miriam tried to protest her brother's innocence but Lily saw Thaddeus cover her mouth muffling her protest and under the scrutinizing glare of Viridian Miriam fell quite,

"I see that our little chat the other day didn't dampen your exuberant spirits did it now?" Viridian said his lips turning into a cruel smile as he looked at Jedidiah and the crowd of students slowly filtered away as the other teachers managed to restore order to the great hall, leaving only the three Artemis, the three Black's and Ludo and Lucius standing a little distance away from the group as the rest of the school settled themselves back down to dinner.

"What on earth was the meaning for all this?" Professor McGonagall demanded, as Viridian still glared at the three Artemis',

"Professor it was -" Bella began before Narcissa cut her off

"It was nothing professor, Bella merely tripped and fell!" Narcissa said hurriedly

"Indeed?" McGonagall said her eyebrows raising slightly as she turned to look at Bella who had shot her eldest sister a deathly look,

"And the shouts of fighting?" Viridian enquired as he still looked at the three Artemis'

"That was us sir!" Thaddeus answered quickly as she nodded towards his younger brother "The great idiot accidentally knocked Bellatrix over sir and -" at this both Bella and Miriam let out a gasp which was quickly concealed by both of their eldest siblings "-well one thing led to another and I hit him sir!"

"You hit me?" Jedidiah said almost laughing as he glared at his brother in disbelief "Yeah right more like I hit you!"

"It doesn't matter who hit who!" Thaddeus said through clenched teeth,

"Well it does to me!" Jedidiah said as he squared his shoulder "I'd take you out with one hand tied behind my back -"

"You really think so you degenerate boil-brained miscreant?" Thaddeus scoffed

"YEAH!!!" Jedidiah said looking angry as both boys looked as though at any moment they would start squaring up to each other,

"That gentlemen will be enough!" called Professor McGonagall, "Never – Never in all my years have I EVER seen a more dysfunctional family then yours!" Lily couldn't believe that McGonagall had just said what she had and it wasn't only Lily's mouth that had dropped at McGonagall's words Frank, Alice and the rest of the first years looked just as stunned, but Lily could see Bella starting to smile has she still pretended to cry in Andromeda's arms, Lily also saw that Professor Viridian had broke into a smile and Lily was reminded of her first dark arts lessons with him and how he had shown a certain dislike towards Miriam even though he had never met her before. Lily suddenly realised that it wasn't Miriam that Viridian disliked and not even Thaddeus or Jedidiah but it was the fact they were Artemis' that also explained, Lily thought, why Professor Viridian was one of the few teachers that was unwilling to participate in the fun activities that had been organised by Mr Amadeus Artemis.

"I believe that another talk is in order don't you Jedidiah?" Viridian said smiling even more as he bared his yellow teeth, both Thaddeus and Jedidiah squeezed their sisters arm grinned at her reassuringly and then followed their head of house out of the great hall. Lily saw that Narcissa mouthed the words 'Thank you' to both of them as they passed her.

"Very well I suggest that if you are not injured then you should all return to your tables" McGonagall said in an exasperated sort of voice as she shepherded the girls and Ludo and Lucius back towards the tables.

"Don't worry about your brothers" Lucius said to Miriam as he and Ludo escorted her back to her fellow Gryffindor first years "Jed's done lines lots of times before and Tad may look like a wimp be he'll hack it!" Miriam smiled meekly as both boys pattered her on the back

"It was a nice uppercut you gave Bella" Ludo grinned "But you should really work on your left hook" with that both boys headed back to the Slytherin table as Miriam sat down besides her, Lily was still wondering why doing lines would be such a terrible thing as Alice spoke,

"Are you ok?" she asked Miriam as she rubbed her arm reassuringly,

"Yeah!" Miriam said automatically but Lily could tell that she wasn't "Where's Remus?" Miriam asked in a slightly distant voice as she obviously tried to change the topic

"Dunno?" Frank said "Also makes you wonder why Dumbledore didn't stop your fight though doesn't it?" Lily immediately looked around the hall and couldn't see any signs of either Dumbledore or Remus, but any thoughts that she had about where they both could have been was pushed out of her mind as the food in front of her was replaced by pudding.


	24. The Daily Prophet again

**Chapter 24: -** The Daily Prophet again

As the day after Halloween was Saturday the entire school was allowed to sleep in late and it wasn't until nearly 10am that Lily started to wake as Miriam's pet Kneazle, Mac, cried at the dormitory door wanting to be let out.

"I know, I know" Lily heard Miriam say as she climbed out of the bed to the left of lily's "Don't look at me like that young man I'm up aren't I!" Lily stretched and yawned as she heard Miriam cross the stone floor towards the door to unseal it, The first year girls still insisted on keeping the Everlasting seal charm on the door as a prevention, and Miriam being the one who had cast the charm the previous night was able to removed the seal and open the door.

"Don't get lost!" Miriam called as lily could hear the tapping of the little Kneazle's claws on the stone stairs as he shot off down to the common room "And I want you back here before two do you here me!" Lily smiled to herself at the thought that Miriam could hold an entire conversation with an animal that couldn't even understand her. After a few more minutes Alice, Dymphna and Amy began to wake and the five girls washed, changed and headed down for breakfast.

"Look it's snowing!" Amy called to the girls as they passed the huge church like windows on the third floor,

"Brilliant" Dymphna said miserably "If it carries on like that the start of the Quidditch season will be postponed"

"You wish!" Miriam said as Lily watched the two girls squash their faces up against the windows glass so that they could look out onto the grounds "The Wasps are going to beat your Arrows into cider this year!"

"You what?" Amy asked looking utterly bewildered,

"Don't get them started" Lily heard Alice plead as she walked down the stairs beside Lily, but it was too late Miriam and Dymphna insisted on teaching Amy their own biased views of Quidditch from their favourite clubs point of view, the Appleby Arrows from Dymphna and Miriam's team the Wimbourne Wasps. And so it was that Lily and Alice led the first year Gryffindor girls into the almost full Great hall while Amy walked behind them followed by Miriam and Dymphna who were arguing over the finer points of a match that had taken place over three years ago,

"It was an illegal move if the ref-" Miriam managed to say before she was cut off by Dymphna

"The referee allowed it so it couldn't be classed as ill-" Dymphna snapped

"Blagging is illegal it's just that your team knew they couldn't win if they fought fair!" Miriam said getting irritably

"Fair! At least we didn't do any bumphing!" cried Dymphna

"If your team was going to play fair in the first place we wouldn't have resorted to dirty underhanded tricks!" Miriam said as the girls headed towards their usual places at the Gryffindor table and Lily's mind began to filter their conversation out. It wasn't that Lily wasn't interested about Quidditch; on the contrary it sounded really good, sort of a mix between football and netball but on brooms. It was just that Lily didn't find the weather conditions, tactics and players health of a game that had been played years before Lily's introduction to the magical world very riveting. And she wasn't the only one.

"What are they doing?" Alice asked curiously as she gazed around the hall and pointed to Miriam's eldest brother and Lucius Malfoy, both of whom were busily pulling a copy of the a newspaper out of the hands of a protesting second year at the Ravenclaw table before they realised that they had been seen by Miriam and her friends.

"Little git stole my prophet!" Thaddeus said innocently as Miriam quickly changed course followed by Lily and the rest of the girls as they now headed over to Miriam's brother who quickly shoved the paper at Lucius Malfoy who flashed his pearly white smile at the girls before he headed back to the Slytherin table and rejoined Jedidiah and Ludo where they busily hid something under their table.

"Really" Miriam said eyeing her brother suspiciously as she placed her hands on her hips. Thaddeus was a lot taller and seven years older then his sisters and with the memory of Thaddeus's gallant actions of the previous evening during the Halloween feast still fresh in Lily's mind she found it very amusing to see Thaddeus actually flush red around his collar as he struggled to find any words as he scratched at his left hand which lily noticed was unnaturally red. Finally Thaddeus shot a pleading look towards Jedidiah and the rest of his friends at the Slytherin table,

"Hay Sis!" Jedidiah said too over enthusiastically as he jumped to his feet and practically ran to his brother's side and quickly steered Miriam away from Thaddeus as the eldest Artemis sibling quickly headed back to the Slytherin table,

"So....er...how's my baby sister today then?" Jedidiah asked

"Why?" Miriam demanded using the same glare on Jedidiah that she had used on Thaddeus. Lily had to struggle to stop herself laughing as she saw the burly fourth year fluster under his sister's gaze.

"W-What....er...Can't a brother ask about the welfare of his favourite sister?" Jedidiah said raising his hands in a sign of peace, Lily was sure that Miriam was going to retort with a clichéd response to Jedidiah's words but none came, instead Miriam eyes widened as she grabbed hold of Jedidiah's right hand and looked very sorrowful as she slowly shook her head,

"I'm so sorry" Miriam said meekly as lily noticed that Jedidiah had the same nasty looking red mark on his right hand that Thaddeus had on his left,

"Don't fret about it kido" Jedidiah said forcing a smiling as he quickly pulled his hand out of Miriam's grasp and hid it in his robes pocket "I'm used to it! And I'll let you in on a secret Merlap works like a charm!" Lily saw that Jedidiah nervously shot a look towards his brother who quickly shook his head as the he stuffed something into his bag and several of their fourth and final year friends quickly hid more things under their table.

"Anyway" Jedidiah said quickly drawing his sister's attention back towards himself and away from the activities of the Slytherins "It's such a fine day so why are you all inside? Boisterous young adventures like you five should be outside in the fresh air!"

"You're beginning to sound like our Butler!" Miriam said as she raised an eyebrow "And besides it's snowing!"

"Even more reason for you to be out! You should be building Snowelves and having snow ball fights" Jedidiah's face fell as he realised what could happen to his sister if she was injured in a snowball fight "Er - on second thought your right you'd better stay in and get your homework done, head up to the library and be safe!" Jedidiah said enthusiastically as he took hold of his sister's arm and tried to drag her towards the huge oak doors,

"What's gong on?" Miriam said pulling her arm free as Lily, Alice, Dymphna and Amy all stood wondering the exact same thing.

"Nothing!" Jedidiah said far too quickly for all the first years liking and drawing a very suspicious looks from them all,

"Nothing" Jedidiah repeated again "It's .... Well...I bet you've got loads of back logged homework to do having been in the hospital wing for so long?"

"I did it all WHILE I was there!" Miriam said angrily

"Well you can help the others out!" Jedidiah said indicating Lily and the other girls

"What without any breakfast?" Amy said in astonishment

"Why not? You don't need to eat!" Jedidiah said struggling to hide his nervousness at being scrutinized by Miriam and her friends has he kept shooting glances at his brother and Ludo "B-Besides it'll be lunch soon you....well....You could work up an appetite!"

"What's going On!" Miriam demanded has she finally turned to look at Thaddeus sitting at the Slytherin table

"Nothing!" Jedidiah said grabbing hold of his sister's arm once more and spinning her around so that she faced him,

"Nothing? Really? Then let me eat I'm famished!" Miriam said once again pulling her arm free from Jedidiah,

"How about I-" Jedidiah began

"NO!" Miriam said cutting him off

"FINE!" Jedidiah raged

"FINE!" Miriam said still glaring at her brother

"I'll let you go then" Jedidiah said but after a slight pause he continued and lily thought that she could detect a slight nervousness in his voice "But...err...If you... well need anything-" Jedidiah said in earnest before he trailed off realising that his sister's attention lay else where

"Is that the Prophet?" Miriam said as she turned once more to look at her eldest brother and his friends as Lucius sat down opposite Thaddeus and passed him a broadsheet

"Brilliant" Miriam said enthusiastically as she turned to look at Dymphna "Today's the day they release the results of the leagues pre-season friendlys!" Miriam said this as she ducked around Jedidiah who looked utterly horrified and immediately chased after her,

"Tad!" Miriam called as she reached her older brother at the Slytherin table, Lily saw Thaddeus jumped at the sound of his name and he quickly span around in his seat to see his sister heading towards him followed by Jedidiah, Lily, Alice, Dymphna and Amy. The girls still wondering what was going on.

"Can I have your Prophet?" Miriam demanded as she reached out for the newspaper in Thaddeus' hand,

"I - er - haven't finished with it!" Thaddeus said as he quickly moved it out of her reach,

"Well that's ok I don't want to read the rubbish just the sports pages!" Miriam said making another grab for the paper,

"No!" Jedidiah said in alarm as he grabbed Miriam's hand receiving a very stern look from his sister for doing so "I mean Tad said I could read it first!"

"That's just stupid! Dad holds a subscription for you as well, so where's your copy?"

"It didn't come this morning!" Jedidiah said quickly, Lily could tell that he was obviously lying as he smiled and looked slightly amazed at his own cunning

"Then how come the paper Ludo's hiding has J Artemis written on the top corner?" Miriam said as she pointed to the half concealed copy of the prophet that was sticking out from underneath Ludo's plate,

"Well I want to see if it's changed!" Jedidiah immediately said, and he immediately shook his head as soon as the words left his mouth, Lily knew that he had regretted his own words as his sister suddenly intensified the look she gave him. And Lily found it very hard to try and not laugh.

"Here!" Thaddeus said tearing the back pages off the newspaper in his hand making the people in the images rush to the opposite side of the pictures away from the tear,

"Thanks" Miriam said harshly as she took the offered pagers and she and the rest of the first year girls finally headed back over to the Gryffindor table. Lily was sure that nearly everyone in the hall was staring at them, 'Great Lily thought that's all they needed more of the school hating them!'

The girls sat down at the Gryffindor table just as Frank, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter joined them

"Hi ya Remmy" Miriam said happily as she spread the precious pages of the Prophet out in front of herself and Dymphna and the two girls restarted their discussion on their favourite teams as James and Sirius both tried to sneak peeks at the paper from across the table.

"You don't look very well today" Lily informed Remus as he sat in front of her and helped himself to some slices of toast,

"Err...No...I guess I didn't sleep too well" Remus said nervously as he looked around the hall. Lily had noticed it to, it hadn't registered when she had first sat down but now she was sure of it, the third year students that usually set next to the first years had moved away from them slightly and all of them had the same shocked and worried expression playing across their faces.

"Merlin look at this!" Miriam said jabbing one of the pages with her finger "The wasps' star keeper was injured in training and he's going to be out for the rest of the season!" Lily noticed that Miriam looked utterly devastated about the news and Lily wondered weather this was the reason why Miriam's brothers hadn't wanted her to read the newspaper? Maybe Thaddeus and Jedidiah knew how badly Miriam would have reacted to the news? Lily knew that her father didn't take it very well when one of his football team players was injured, and with everything else that Miriam had been through in the pass few weeks maybe Miriam's brothers didn't want to upset Miriam any further?

But for some reason this explanation didn't seem to feel right to Lily, if it was true it didn't explain why many of the other students kept staring at them and why the ones closest to them had tried to move away and also it didn't explain why most of the students were whispering to each other behind their hands and looking towards the first year Gryffindors as though they where diseased and something very vile. Lily looked around at the other students once more hoping that she was being paranoid, but she wasn't the only one that was thinking this Remus was shifting uncomfortably in his seat, his large eyes darting from side to side as he too looked around the hall, his face, if possible, palling even more.

"Are you feeling ok?" Lily asked as she leaned across the table to whisper to Remus.

Remus jumped as Lily spoke to him and he stuttered a reply,

"What!...Oh y-y-yes!" Even though Remus had said that he was fine Lily could tell that he wasn't, He like her, Lily thought was finding the continued glares of the other students unbearable.

"Are we today's freak show?" James asked indignantly as he looked around at the other students,

"You should be used to it" Alice said "You are a freak!"

"Thanks and you're the spitting image of a Grim!" James said as a retorted that made Sirius laugh, Lily couldn't help but grin as Sirius' laugh sounded more like a bark.

"Thanks Jimmy and I wish you would see a Grim!" Alice said in a tone of voice that betrayed no emotions,

"My Uncle saw a Grim once" peter announced to the group as though it was the most wonderful thing in the world, Lily of course had no idea what a Grim was and so she sat listening to the ensuing conversation of her friends,

"Really!" Sirius asked eagerly "When?"

"When he was our age, on a holiday in Devon" Peter said sadly,

"Wow! And he really died?" Frank asked as he joined to fuel the morbid conversation,

"Oh yes" Peter said excitedly as he realised the everyone but Miriam and Dymphna where interested in what he had to say, a very rear thing for Peter Lily thought, "He died last year on his ninetieth birthday"

"You dunce!" Sirius said as he rapped Peter around the head and James and Frank groaned loudly before bursting out laughing,

"Th-Their supposed to die within a shorter time frame then that!" Frank said in between laughs,

"Yeah I've never heard of the effects of a Grim lasting over eighty years!" Sirius said as he made his load barking laugh again,

"Isn't it more likely that your uncle just saw a really big black dog?" Alice said,

"Oh no Allywally," James said mocking his twin "if Peter says his Uncle died because he saw a Grim then that's what happed! Alice opened her mouth to reply to her brother but suddenly she stopped and turned as all the first years heard a passing Ravenclaw third year hiss something as he passed the first years at the Gryffindor table.

"What did he just say?" James said in utter disgusted as he and the other first years watched the Ravenclaw exit the great hall. The first years didn't have long to ponder this as a group of second year Ravenclaws quickened their pace as they passed the part of the table where the first years sat,

"What was that about?" Frank asked his laughing fit suddenly over as he turned to look at his fellow first years, his face very grim. Lily noticed that Frank wasn't the only one that was shocked by the behaviour of the other students James, Alice, Sirius and Amy all noticed that the first year Gryffindors where all being stared at, Lily also noticed that Remus was behaving strangely, he sat in his seat and lowered his head almost like he was ashamed of something.

"Hello you lot" Gryffindor's sixth year prefect Gideon Prewett said cheerfully as he sat down next to Miriam and Remus "So....How are your lessons going?"

"Really good!" Dymphna said eagerly, tearing herself away from the Sports columns of the few pages of the Prophet that Thaddeus had given them. Up until this point Dymphna and Miriam had been enthralled in the pages, carrying on their own conversations that slated each others and rival Quidditch clubs both completely wrapped up in a world of their own. But like always at the appearance of Gideon, Dymphna soon managed to abandon her current activity and was soon staring at Gideon fondly, Quidditch completely forgotten.

"Potions is a bit tough but other then that we're doing fine!" Dymphna told Gideon happily

"Just Potions?" Frank said asked in surprise "You mean that and Transfigurations and Charms and all the rest of them!"

"It's not that bad Longbottom, surly?" Gideon asked smiling, Lily noticed that Dymphna held her breath as she now gazed into Gideon's handsome smiling features as though by doing this she could hold on to his image forever,

"Ignore him he's in a mood today" Alice said, Lily tried to hide a grin as she heard Dymphna sigh as Gideon turned to look towards Alice who was sitting on the opposite side of Dymphna and so therefore could no longer gaze into the sixth former's eyes,

"ME!" Frank said indignantly "He's the one in the mood!" at this Frank pointed to Remus who quickly shot Frank an angry look at being singled out.

"So...er...Remus is it?" Gideon asked tentatively, as Remus nodded slightly to indicate that Gideon had guessed his name correctly "How are you feeling today?"

"He's fine!" Said a voice from behind the first years as Remus was about to open his mouth, turning Lily saw both of Miriam's brothers standing behind her staring at Gideon as though he was something nasty on the soles of their shoes.

"What are you doing here?" Thaddeus demanded of Gideon,

"Unless I'm very much mistaken this is still the Gryffindor table-" Gideon said, his voice calm and even

"And that's our sister!" Jedidiah said bitterly as he pointed to Miriam who had now finally lifted her head from the newspaper pages spread out in front of her

"So?" Miriam said angrily "What do you two want anyway?"

"We want him to push off back to the rest of his perfect prefect friends and to leave you alone" Jedidiah said as he gestured with his thumb to the other end of the Gryffindor table

"He isn't dong anything wrong" Dymphna insisted as she glared at Miriam's brothers with the utmost loathing in her eyes, horrid at the thought that Gideon could leave,

"Besides we like Gideon" Miriam said

"You've no right to do it" Thaddeus said looking at Gideon as though he hadn't heard his sister speak

"She and they have a right to know!" Gideon said to Thaddeus, Lily felt as though she had walked in half way through a conversation, the two eldest boys where talking as though the topic on which they had been talking about had been discussed a hundred times before. Lily also noticed that Remus' eyes widened in what almost looked like fear and panic and his mouth fell open slightly as Thaddeus spoke next,

"Maybe they do but you don't have the right to tell them!"

"What's going on?" Miriam asked as she looked from her brothers to Gideon and back again,

"I think you've a right to see this" Gideon said as his put his hand into his robes pocket and fished out a scrape of news print, as both Thaddeus and Jedidiah protested loudly.

"W-W-What is it?" Remus asked nervously as he, Lily and the rest of the first years stared at the paper

"She's our sister, we know what's best for her" Jedidiah said as he tried to snatch the paper out of Gideon's hand

"It's about me?" Miriam asked in horror as she too made a grab for the paper, but Gideon pulled it away from both of them. Lily heard Remus sigh with relief and Lily assumed that it was because Jedidiah didn't manage to grab hold of the paper. Lily could tell that by the look on Gideon's face he was no longer sure weather giving Miriam the paper was a good idea,

"If it's about me I want to read it!" Miriam said as she held out her hand to Gideon who slowly and despite the deathly looks that Thaddeus and Jedidiah was giving him handed over the slip of paper. Lily and the rest of the first year Gryffindors along with Gideon and Miriam's brothers watched as Miriam unfolded the now crumpled paper to reveal that it was a full page article from a newspaper, but not just any newspaper, Lily could see that on the reverse of the paper it was dated for this morning. Now everything clicked! Miriam's brothers had been acting strangely because they had found out that the Daily Prophet had printed something about Miriam or their family, and what ever it had been they didn't what Miriam to read it, that explained why they had been so reluctant to let Miriam see a copy of the newspaper and why the brothers and the rest of their Slytherin friends had been stealing newspapers from the rest of the school.

Lily now watched as everyone's eyes fell on Miriam as she began to read the article that Gideon had given her, Miriam seemed to take a very long time in reading the article and when she did actually finish she lowered the page and forced a smile on to her face,

"Well...You've got to admire the research" Miriam said cheerfully as she folded the sheet of paper up and put it into her pocket,

"Don't worry about it" Thaddeus said reassuringly as he moved towards his sister and place his hand on her shoulder "Dad's looking into how this all got out he's going to sort it all out for us"

"For me you mean" Miriam corrected her brother her voice cracking slightly as her eyes began to grow moist,

"Yeah" Thaddeus said quietly as he knelt down next to his sister looking very concerned for her as he rubbed her arm,

"Heads are going to roll for this" Jedidiah said happily as though his statement would bring comfort to his sister

"Dad wrote saying he's going to demand that they print a retraction immediately" Thaddeus said in a very low voice "And it's not going to be one of those tiny twentieth page things, Dad wants a proper retraction on the full front page!"

"No" Miriam said her voice sounding strong despite the promise of tears "Why should they it's all the truth it's not like they've lied or anything" and with that Miriam shook her brothers hand off her arm got up from the table and headed out of the great hall leaving Lily and the rest of the first years utterly bewildered.

"Thanks a lot Prewett!" Jedidiah said bitterly, Gideon opened his mouth to answer but Thaddeus replied instead,

"No Jed Prewett was right we should have told her" Thaddeus' voiced sounded flat and sorrowful "It probably hurts more because we were the one that didn't tell her" Jedidiah slowly nodded his agreement at his brothers words and Lily suddenly realised that the first years, Gideon and the two Artemis siblings were being stared at by the entire Great hall, The rest of the students started to whisper again and many shot looks towards the huge oak doors of the great hall which Miriam had disappeared though moments before,

"What's going on here?" said the very stern voice Professor McGonagall as she came to investigate the reason for two brothers appearance at the Gryffindor table, Thaddeus solemnly dug his hand into his robes pocket and pulled out a copy of the same page that Gideon had given to Miriam, this page Thaddeus now handed to McGonagall,

"Oh..... Well.... I see" McGonagall said as she finally read the article "Well this is not no reason to be disturbing the rest of the school!" at the professors words both Thaddeus and Jedidiah shot McGonagall a venomous look before they both headed back to their own table and rejoined their friends.


	25. Winter at Hogwarts

**Chapter 25:- Winter at Hogwarts**

Lily, Alice, Dymphna and Amy hurried after Miriam they found her slumped flat on her stomach on her bed in their dormitory, MacMikelmouse, Miriam's kitten had obviously sensed something was wrong as he had returned from his wandering and was now brushing himself against Miriam's cheeks and rubbing his cheeks against her face as he purred loudly,

"What did it say?" Alice asked tenderly as she entered the dorm and sat next to Miriam on her bed. Alice was always the one who knew how to deal with situations like this, Lily thought, Miriam sighed as she turned to look at her friends her face slightly red but there were no obvious signs of any tears, not yet any way.

"Please Miriam" Lily said as she too now entered the dormitory followed by Dymphna and Amy "What's happened?" Sighing Miriam handed her friends the page of the Daily Prophet that Gideon had given her. Lily, Alice, Dymphna and Amy all crowed together to read it

**Diseased**

The header said in huge black print that stretched across the entire length of the page, underneath which was a portrait of Miriam dressed in her Hogwarts robes looking very shy.

_The most distressing information has come to the attention of one of our most prized reporters, Rigel Schwarz. _ (The article read) _Miss Miriam Artemis,_ _the only daughter to the current heir of the ancient and most noble Artemis family, has been revealed to be carrying a deadly disease!_

_Insiders at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Miss Artemis is currently studying in her first year, have been able to reveal yesterday, that due to this impeding sickness Miss Artemis aged 11, was absent from lessons and all other social activities for over four weeks. Sources at the school have also revealed that various members of the schools faculty have been hiding this information from the general student populous and had even devised a cover story that was encouraged by them to be spread amongst the students. This leads this reporter to believe that there maybe something more to Miss Artemis' condition then meets the eye..._

The rest of the article described in great detail the various different blood disorders that the reporter believed Miriam could have and also made reference to other articles that Miriam's family had been in in the past. Implying that there maybe was some underlying factors that contributed towards Miriam's condition, such as (as the article said half way down)

"_links to impurities in the Artemis bloodline could very well be a factor for the course of such a terrible disease..."_

Whatever that meant Lily didn't know, all she knew was that this article was the reason for her fiends current unhappiness, and after only just getting her back after an Lily didn't want to lose her again,

"It'll be alright!" Lily told Miriam trying to sound confident in her own words,

"Yeah you'll see no one will even care about this!" Alice said as she poked a finger at the offending newsprint,

"You know what we should do?" Amy said excitedly "We should burn it!"

"What?" Miriam asked a little stunned as she sat upright on her bed and Mac meowed almost in agreement to what Amy had said,

"Yeah" Dymphna agreed "We should burn it! You know sort of like a good omen!"

"Good omen?" Alice said sceptically her eyebrows raised,

"I don't think it'll work" Miriam said shaking her head as Dymphna and Amy pulled her off the bed and Mac dropped to the floor brushing around Miriam's feet,

"Go on" Dymphna and Amy both said encouragingly as Dymphna shoved the paper back into Miriam's hands. As Amy crossed the room to the small potbellied stove in the corner of the dormitory to stoke the dying embers Miriam looked at Lily,

"What do you think?" Miriam asked but before Lily could reply Dymphna was leading Miriam over to the stove and with one last glance at lily Miriam threw the paper on to the fires.

"I don't think it's going to help" Miriam said as she watched the paper shrivel up and burn,

"Nonsense!" Dymphna said "My mother does it all the time; it's a good omen she says" Lily didn't really want to point out that burning a scrap of paper wouldn't change how any of the other students had been reacting at breakfast, nor would it change the spiteful stares or the whispering. Lily looked towards Miriam who she realised also knew this fact too but Amy and Dymphna seemed very pleased about their contribution and Lily noticed that Miriam was at least smiling slightly.

"Come on" Dymphna said taking Miriam's hand "Frank and Remus are both worried about you"

"Their waiting in the common room" Amy said as she dashed to open the door,

"I...I Don't know about this" Miriam said looking a little worried "I'm not feeling too well maybe I should..."

"Nonsense" Amy and Dymphna said finally pulling Miriam out of the dormitory "It'll be fine!" Lily and Alice followed their friends, but despite the other two girls reassurances Lily could feel a pang in her stomach telling her that this wasn't a good idea.

Unfortunately Lily's gut feeling was right, the common room was uncommonly full as the snow had kept all the students inside, as soon as the first years entered the common room all the students fell silent and everyone's head turned to stare at the five friends.

"Just ignore it" Alice said as she led Miriam towards Frank and Remus who where sitting in one of the darker corners of the common room, The first years slowly crossed the common room as many of the older students began to whisper to their friends, some not even pretending to lower their voices.

"It makes you wonder what the rest of the family is riddled with!" Lily heard one of the sixth form girls say, Lily could have sworn that it was the same voice that she had heard say that they fancied Miriam's brother Jedidiah; the night the first years had sneaked out to visit Miriam in the hospital wing.

"Just ignore it" Alice uttered again but Lily could tell that as the whispers increased Miriam wouldn't be able to ignore it for long, they passed a group of third year boys who had paused in the middle of a game of Gobstones, Lily noticed that as Miriam passed two of the boys shrank against the walls. This Lily guessed was the final straw,

"IT'S NOT CONTAGIOUS!!!!" Miriam yelled at the boys before she turned to address the rest of the common room "YOU CAN'T CATCH ANYTHING! IT DOESN'T GET PASSED ON BY TOUCH OR BY BREATHING THE SAME AIR AS ME!!!" the common room fell into a sudden and awkward silence, even Frank looked shocked at Miriam's out burst but Lily noticed that Remus wore a very strange expression on his face, almost a look of understanding as though he was feeling very deeply for Miriam at that moment.

Over the weekend it was quite easy for the first year girls to avoid the stares and rude comments that where made because they spend most of their time in their dormitory. Frank insisted on joining in on their conversations by shouting strange and pointless comments up the girl's dormitory stairway and receiving yells of anger from Hug-and-kiss, Miriam's new nickname for prefect Amanda Hugh-Genghis, for disturbing the silence of the common room. On the occasional trips that Lily made to the common room over the weekend Lily noticed that Remus was becoming as withdraw as Miriam but Remus had an added misfortune of being slightly jumpy when people spoke to him. As Monday came and Miriam was forced out of her dorm and into lessons She, Lily and the others soon discovered that most students weather they had been friendly in the past or not quickly change their attitudes. People tended to treat Miriam very differently now, some students felt sorry for her and adopted very melancholy attitudes when they where near her, almost as though they believed Miriam wasn't long for this world. These where the types that Lily knew Miriam hated the most, they where students that hadn't even spoken to the first years before and yet they insisted on following the first years around as though Miriam was going to pop her clogs in front of their very eyes,

"I wouldn't give them that satisfaction" Miriam had growled, Then there were the group of students that still believed that Miriam's condition was something to be feared, they would cross to the other side of the corridors when they saw Miriam coming or pretend that they had forgotten something in their dorms and quickly hurry back the way they had come, just to avoid being in the same small space as her. Lily knew that these where the groups that Miriam liked the most, they where always nervous and jittery around Miriam and so very easily scared, and the first years soon discovered that a quick attack of a loud chesty cough soon freed up any queues from the bathrooms. The final group was the worst these included people like Bellatrix Black and many Ravenclaws, these students would go out of their way to make Miriam feel miserable or to even antagonise her. When the first years where in the common room Gideon Prewett always kept a watchful eye on the girls and when Miriam did adventure out of Gryffindor tower her brothers always seemed to be close at hand.

The snow that had begun to fall over the Halloween weekend had started to settle all over the grounds by mid week. Hagrid's hut resembled a snow covered hillock, the forbidden forest looked even more dark and ominous, a thin layer of ice had started to form over the lake and the giant squid hadn't been seen in over a week. Most of the students and teachers had taken the squids absence as a sign that the school was in for a bad winter, Franks answer however was that the Merpeople had eaten it.

"There are no Merpeople in the lake" Alice said irritably as she pulled her thick woollen scarf up around her neck and drew her cape around her "It's just a silly myth!" Lily and the rest of the first years quickly discovered that Hogwarts was not a winter friendly place. The castle itself was constantly cold, Frank had a theory about this too, he clamed that the castle had purposely been designed to ensure that no room was able to stay warm, so that over the winter months the students would have to devote all their free time towards studying in the warmer location of the school such as the library. This theory Lily and the others did agree with, every door had a gap of a few inches that the cruel winter wind would blow through, and most windows in the main corridors didn't contain any glass so the howling wind would carry pockets of snow and rain into the castle itself. Besides the library the only other places that where warm where the common rooms and dormitories, but with only fifteen minutes break between each lesson the Gryffindors never had enough time to climb to the seventh floor, before their next lesson started. Because of this cold weather most of the teachers allowed the students to wear their gloves and scarf's during lessons. For the most part this was good and the students could keep relatively warm. The spells used in charms and Transfigurations were still aptly performed even with the hindrance of thick woollen gloves or mittens but writing was some times difficult and classes like potions and Herbology was completely impossible to do to a satisfactory level but most of the student still stubbornly wore their gloves. During the winter months Madam Pomfrey was constantly kept busy with students who had bad colds and burnt hands.

Including the addition of their gloves and scarfs no student left their dormitories nowadays without a thick woolly jumper under their robes. And in the evenings when all the students could finally retire to their common rooms most students fought for the prime positions. In the Gryffindor common room this was the two large red sofas directly in front of the roaring log fire. This prime location however was always reserved for the older and more popular students of the house, this was because they saw themselves as more important then the younger years. This was never truer then with the members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, who along with the final years insisted on a tight pecking order.

This student hierarchy started with Quidditch captain Calvin Skinner and ended with the first years, it wasn't too much of a surprise that due to this the first years where treated like the lowest of the low. Although Lily preferred to assume that this was manly due to the fact that they had done too much to annoy the rest of the house.

Lily assumed this from the fact that Robert Smithson and David Darcy, who still partnered Lily and Miriam in Herbology had told the girls that the older Hufflepuff students had taken them under their wings and tried to show them the ropes of life at the school. But Lily suspected that life in Hufflepuff house was generally a lot better then any other house every Hufflepuff student seamed to get on very well with each other.

The Snow had finally stopped falling on Tuesday afternoon, a full week after the Halloween feast. After all the students had eaten lunch many of the more adventurous ones could be found out in the castle grounds, making Snowelves and Snow angels and having snowball fights in the larger drifts of snow. Lily, Frank Alice and Miriam could be found inside one of the allotted class rooms where professor McGonagall acting on the orders of Miriam's parents and Grandfather had insisted that Miriam should go to at breaks and dinners so that nothing untoward would happen to her while the rest of the school enjoyed themselves playing and having fun in the snow. Miriam as Lily and the other first years correctly guessed didn't appreciate being singled out like this, but after the release of the article in the Daily Prophet even the prospect of a bit of fun in the snow hadn't seemed to lighten Miriam's spirits, in fact if anything Lily thought that Miriam's spirits had turned foul just like the weather. Most days Miriam could be found in the library sifting through great dusty volumes on curses and enchantments, Miriam's reclusive behaviour had started to worry her friends but Lily would have tried to have shown more concern for Miriam's continued strange behaviour if it hadn't been for Miriam's two older brothers insisting on doing their protective brother routine.

And so, even thought the classroom had been allotted for the sole use of Miriam and the first years Gryffindors both Thaddeus and Jedidiah accompanied as ever by their best friends, Lucius Malfoy and Ludo Bagman, could be found in the room keeping a close eye on their little sister.

Today Lily guessed must have been Thaddeus' turn at looking after his sister as Jedidiah and Ludo could be found out in the grounds with the rest of their fourth year friends and a great majority of the school including Dymphna and Amy. Thaddeus sat next to his sister trying to engage her in conversation but after a while he gave up and turned his attention to his girlfriend Narcissa Black, who was being chatted up by Thaddeus' best mate Lucius Malfoy.

"Push off mate" Thaddeus said as he put his arms around Narcissa, drawing her close and kissing her on the head,

"Fine" Lucius said smiling "but it's your loss Narcs!" Acting as though he was hurt Lucius moved over to a group of girls that always followed Thaddeus, Lucius and Narcissa around. Some of the girls where younger then the final years but all of them where in Slytherin, Lucius smiled at Narcissa as he slipped his hand around the shoulder of one of the younger girls, She was probably in her fourth year lily guessed, as the girl giggled and turned red as Lucius playfully blew into her ear.

"I think I could live with the loss" Narcissa replied to Lucius as she put her arms around Thaddeus' neck and leaned up to kiss him on the chin "I've all I want here" Narcissa said a smile playing across her lips as she gazed into her boyfriends eyes, and Thaddeus smiled.

Despite Lily's dislike of two other members of the Black family, Lily actually liked Narcissa, she was the complete opposite of her youngest sister Bellatrix in more then just appearance. Bellatrix had dark hair and eyes, while Narcissa had white blond hair and light brown eyes and was one of the most attractive girls in the school. She was also quite intelligent and received good grades in all her work, and even though she constantly adopted a look as though there was something rancid nearby, Lily discovered that Narcissa was quite a nice person. Lily had also soon discovered that Thaddeus was classed one of the most eligible and attractive males in the school along with his brother and Lucius, and so Lily thought that Thaddeus and Narcissa made a very apt couple.

"Makes you feel sick" Frank said staring at the couple as they kissed again and Lucius tried out his chat up lines on the other girls now causing a chorus of giggles,

"I think it's romantic" Alice said dreamily,

Lily just nodded and mumbled, she also thought that the affection that Thaddeus and Narcissa had for each other was very romantic but she also found it sickening, Thaddeus was indeed very good looking and Lily always felt a pang of jealousy towards Narcissa because Lily had realised that she actually quite liked Miriam's eldest brother. Lily was quickly pulled from her jealous thoughts by a loud bang from outside in the grounds, she, Frank, Alice and the others in the class raced towards the window only to see Jedidiah, Ludo and the rest of their fellow fourth year Slytherins boys taking their snowball fight against a group of older Gryffindors a little too far.

"Miriam come look!" Frank called as Jedidiah threw his wand aside and dived at Calvin Skinner the Gryffindor Quidditch captain,

"For Merlins sake!" Lily heard Thaddeus' voice say, he was now standing right next to her and suddenly Lily felt very self-conscious,

"You stay here!" Thaddeus said pointing to his sister who hadn't even took her head out of the book she was engrossed in. Miriam completely ignored her brother as he and Lucius headed out of the classroom wands at the ready as the younger Slytherin girls whispered excitedly as they gazed at the two older boy's as they took off down the corridor. More loud bangs could be heard outside and after a few minutes Lily could see Thaddeus and Lucius sprinting across the snow filled grounds to where Jedidiah and Calvin where still fighting. Ludo and the rest of the Slytherins and Gryffindors who that had been shooting coloured flares at each other were now all standing and watching the out come of the fight between the two rivals.

"Why don't the teachers stop it?" Lily asked the room in general as she stood looking at the fight from the classroom window with her friends,

"It's just a simple fracas" Narcissa said "Just the usual sparing match, they always happen before the big game" Lily didn't fully understand what Narcissa had meant by 'Big Game' and she didn't really care, all she knew was that Jedidiah could get hurt and that the teachers were not trying to stop the fight. Thaddeus and Lucius didn't seem too pleased about the fracas as they tried separating the two younger boys, but in doing so Jedidiah spun round and hit his brother in the face making Lily gasp and Lucius double over in laughter. From the window lily could see that Thaddeus looked enraged at his younger brother as he tried to apologise, but as Jedidiah held his hands up to look at his brothers bleeding nose Thaddeus punched Jedidiah and so the fracas started again but this time with a new contender,

"Oh dear" Narcissus said a smile turning up the corner of her lips "I think I best go separate them before they do something they regret" and with that she headed out of the room followed as ever by the entourage of younger Slytherin girls.

"WOW!" Frank exclaimed as Thaddeus punched his brother again and Jedidiah fell to the ground and then dived at his brothers legs, "Well I guess we'll soon see who's the better fighter!" Frank said blissfully remembering the argument that the two brothers had had during the Halloween feast. Lily wasn't really paying attention to Frank she was wondering why Lucius hadn't tried to stop the two boys, but no sooner had the thought formed in Lily's head then Lucius grabbed Jedidiah around his middle and with the help of Ludo the two boys dragged Jedidiah off his older brother.

Both boys where bleeding badly from various cuts, but even from the height of the third floor classroom Lily could see that Thaddeus looked like he wanted nothing more then to kill his brother and so did Jedidiah. But after getting shakily to his feet Thaddeus smiled and held his hand out to his brother, Jedidiah, now free form Lucius and Ludo's grasp shook his brothers hand and they both pulled each other into a massive rib cracking bear hug. Lily saw that Calvin Skinner had by now disappeared into the crowd and the two brothers looked like they where now laughing and joking about what had just happened,

"You've got one screwed up family Mi" Frank said next to lily as they both stared through the window to see Narcissa running across the grounds towards Thaddeus who hugged her and kissed her on the lips and the surrounding Slytherins cheered, Lily turned away from the window,

"It's done Mi" Lily said but Miriam was no longer sitting at the desk "Miriam?" Lily said quickly looking around the class room but apart from herself, Frank and Alice it was completely empty,

"Great!" Frank said hysterically "We've lost the sister of the psycho brothers!"


	26. The Restricted section

**Chapter 26: -** The Restricted section

"Well?" Lily asked as she rushed into the Gryffindor common room half an hour later,

"Nothing!" Alice said sounding slightly tearful "We checked the potions stores, the care of magical creatures class room even the dorms and we've even asked myrtle, that ghost from the second floor Toilets, she's nowhere!" Lily sank into a nearby chair slowly shaking her head in despair

"She's not out in the grounds either, I even asked Hagrid and he said he's not seen her!" Lily sighed deeply between them She, Frank and Alice had searched most of the school and had still not found their friend.

"Did you check the broom shed?" Alice asked

"Yes!" Lily replied irritably, "I checked it and I even tried to get a look inside greenhouse 3 before professor Sprout spotted me!"

"Maybe you didn't look hard enough it's a huge place you know!" Alice said crossly

"Me! At least you had help!" Lily snapped as she shot a finger out to indicate Frank

"Alright ladies!" Frank said standing in between the two girls his arms spread wide as though he was pushing them apart "If she's not in the usual Mi type places then maybe we should start to look in less Mi type hangouts!"

"What are you jabbering on about?" Alice said voicing what Lily had also thought,

"I mean that Miriam hasn't acted normally since that newspaper article about her, so instead of looking in places where normal Mi would be we should search places where crazy Mi would go!"

"Miriam isn't crazy!" Lily snapped,

"Well she's not acting normally either!" Frank retorted

"He's got a point Lily" Alice said gloomily. Lily nodded; despite how Frank had expressed his thoughts Lily had to agree that Miriam had been acting very strangely after the Daily Prophet article had been printed. But Miriam also had good reasons to be acting so uncharacteristic, Lily couldn't imagine how she would have reacted if one day she woke to discover that the entire faculty and student body knew one of her deepest and darkest secrets, not like Lily had any but that was beyond the point. She, Frank and Alice knew that Miriam and her family was a very proud family that hadn't appreciated Miriam's problems being broadcasted to the entire wizarding world.

"We should check out places where Miriam wouldn't usually go" frank suggested "Places like the trophy room, the library or the courtyard?"

"Where?" Lily asked suddenly as an idea struck her,

"The courtyard, you know the walled area with a partial roof outside and opposite the great hall?"

"No you pratt what I meant was, has anyone bothered to check the library?"

"No" Alice and Frank said unison,

"Oh" said Frank as Lily's thoughts suddenly dawned on him and Alice, the last place that Miriam would ever go to willingly was the library!

"NO RUNNING IN THE CORRIDORS!" Yelled Hufflepuff prefect Fabian Prewett, as the trio hurtled down the third floor passage way as they headed towards their destination. They slowed to a walk as they approached the huge oak doors that barred the entrance of the library. The first years had learned quickly that if they didn't want the vulture like librarian madam Pince breathing down their necks as soon as they stepped foot into the library then it always paid to at least show that you intended to be a smart, kind, polite and rule abiding student, especially within a 200 meter radius of the old witch. At the back of the library sitting at one of the small study desks deeply engrossed in a huge dusty volume with a small furry object next to her, the three friends found who they had been looking for, their other best friend Miriam Artemis.

Lily was relived to discover that she had been right, but she didn't say anything as she smiled to herself and as the three friends made their way towards Miriam, tip toeing pass Madam Pince as not to draw attention to themselves, but they needn't have worried as she was distracted by arguing with a final year Ravenclaw who had brought his books back over 30 seconds late. When Lily was close enough to Miriam she immediately realised that the furry object on the desk wasn't an object at all but was in fact Miriam's pet Kneazle; MacMikelmouse. The small catlike animal was sitting on the table next to the huge book and lily thought that if it was at all possible Mac as looking utterly bored as he rested his head on his paws.

"Miriam!" Lily hissed as she, Frank and Alice approached the table and suddenly Mac sprang to his feet shot Frank a warning look followed by a low grumbling hiss which was Mac's way of challenging the only male of the small group, daring him to come closer. Frank took the hint and stopped dead in his tracks has he eyed the little cat suspiciously as it continued to hiss, throughout this Miriam said nothing she didn't even look towards them to see who the tiny Kneazle was hissing at, she just stretched out her hand and rubbed the small kittens ear making him cease hissing and to purr loudly instead,

"Why did you run off like that?" Lily demanded of her friend as she pushed past Frank and stood directly in front of Miriam at the desk

"I needed to find another book" Miriam said matter-of-factly as she turned the page in the book in front of her,

"You could have told us we would have come with you" Alice informed Miriam as both Lily and Frank nodded in agreement

"What was wrong with the other book?" Frank asked as a silence fell on the four friends

"It wasn't enough" Miriam said blankly as she flicked through the reaming pages of the huge book in front of her

"It seemed enough to me!" Lily heard Frank mutter behind her as he remembered how big and heavy the book that Miriam was reading in the classroom was.

"It didn't have what I was looking for" Miriam said sounding annoyed as she slammed the book in font of her closed, "Neither has this one!"

"Well maybe if you tell us what you're looking for then we could help?" Alice offered

"I can't tell you" Miriam said shaking her head "Not until I'm a sure"

"Why?" Frank demanded "We're your friends Mi your supposed to tell us everything"

"Perhaps? But not this, Not until I'm sure"

"Miriam are you alright?" Lily asked trying but failing to hide the concern in her voice, but Miriam ignored her,

"I bet that has what I'm looking for?" Miriam said as she slowly turned her head to look towards her left, Lily, Frank and Alice all turned to face the direction that Miriam had indicated, and none of them was surprised to discover that they were looking directly towards the restricted section.

"You're mad! You're totally insane you do know that don't you?!?" Frank yelled as Lily, Miriam, Alice and Frank sat in the first year boys' dormitory that evening after lessons "We'll be kicked out of Hogwarts before you can say Disapparate! We'll end our days scrubbing the urinals in the gents at the ministry, saying 'T'ank ye sir' and smelling strongly of cats!!!" At Frank's reference to cat's MacMikelmouse, who had up until that point been curled up in Miriam's lap purring, suddenly let out a hiss at Frank to show his displeasure.

"Frank thinks too much, Mac" Miriam reassured her pet as she rubbed the kitten behind it's ears but even though the kitten settled it's self back onto Miriam's lap lily was sure it was still staring at Frank.

"Frank does however have a point" Alice said as she sat on the bed next to Miriam, "Dumbledore has told us, Merlin knows how many times, this term not to leave the common room after hours but yet we're still doing it, even now we're planning another joint around the school after curfew. We are going to get caught and Dumbledore isn't going to be lenient a third time, especially since he asked us personally not to do it again" Alice looked at Miriam vehemently but Miriam just sighed and rubbed her eyes before she spoke,

"Haven't any of you ever thought it strange why this curfew is so tightly enforced this year when it never has been in the past? Or that the first time Dumbledore found us on the night we went looking for Mac he wasn't angry at us for breaking the rules? In fact his exact words were 'Certain nights at Hogwarts are not as safe as others' so what does that tell you?" Miriam asked softly as she stroked Mac.

"That...certain nights aren't as safe as others?" Frank said sarcastically shaking his head

"Yes" Miriam said not at all dissuaded by Frank's silly comment "it means that some nights are more dangerous then others-"

"So?" Frank said as he sat down on the bed besides Lily

"So?!?!" Miriam said beginning to get annoyed at Franks current pretence on his stupidity "Have you all forgot the state we fond Remmy in, in that hospital bed? It looked like he had gone ten rounds in a duel and had forgotten how to use his wand"

"And your point is?" asked Frank his tone as inpatient as Miriam's

"My point!?!" Miriam said raising her voice as she stood up, knocking Mac unceremoniously to the ground as he fell out of her lap "Aren't any of you curious about what happened to him? Or the fact that once in a while he would go missing from lessons, and have nothing but a lame excuse to explain it? Or what about how he always looks like he's ill?!?

"Are you saying that there's something wrong with my room mate?" Frank asked a look of great concern swept over his face as he shot up off the bed he had been sitting on as if he was on fire. Lily noticed that the trunk at the end of the bed was labelled R.J.L.

"I'm not sure" Miriam confessed "that's what I want to find out" Lily didn't like the sound of this if anyone knew what it was like to have their personal secrets know to an entire school then it was Miriam, so why was she so willing to discover Remus' secret, Lily decided to voice her concerns to the room.

"Mi maybe Remus has his reasons for not telling us? You wouldn't have wanted us digging around in your past? And if he wants to tell us he should do it n his own time, not forced to by us"

"I know but maybe we can help him" Miriam replied, "you guys have been a life save for me, and all this with the Prophet seemed to have hit a cord with Remmy too" Lily remembered how on the day that the article had been printed Remus had looked even more pallid and gaunt then ever before. Alice smiled and rubbed Miriam's arm

"I agree if we can help him we should, even if it's just by letting him know that we care"

"Care?" Asked a voice as the dormitory door was flung open "Care about who?" The voice belonged to James as he Sirius, Peter and Remus entered the room,

"What the HELL!!!" Sirius yelled "Longbottom you've had it this time! Why would you allow those" Sirius pointed at the girls "into our privet space?" Frank, Lily and Miriam was about to protest when MacMikelmouse jumped up onto the bed nearest the door and began to hiss and spit and Sirius as the fur on the tiny kittens back stood on end, Mac obviously still hadn't forgotten that James and Sirius had tried to lock him in their trunks, and by the looks of James and Sirius as they both clutched their faces they still hadn't forgot how sharp the small kittens claws had been.

"We'll see you later tonight" Miriam said to Frank as she scooped her pet up and brushed past Sirius thrusting the kitten into his face making the animal hiss even more and swiping at Sirius' face as he jumped backwards,

"I can't understand it" Miriam said sarcastically "He's usually such a well behaved little boy" Lily heard Frank scoff as she and Alice followed Miriam down the stairs, Lily flashed Remus a quick smile as she passed him and then hurried after her friends.

Lily was glad to see the old vitality was slowly creeping back into Miriam, and if it took one more illegal expedition out of the common room to restore her friend back to normal then Lily promised herself that was what she had to do.

"Tell me again why we're doing this?" Frank asked as he, Lily, Alice and Miriam crept along the dimly lit castle corridors, it was one thirty in the morning and the entire castle was sleeping, the low burning torches cast long eerie shadows across the walls and floor, and the slightest sound was enough to make all four friends jump. Lily was tired of explaining the reasoning to Frank; he well knew fully well why they were doing this! But lily couldn't help but feel that it was more to satisfy Miriam's curiosity then to help ease Remus' problems, what ever they where.

"We're going to get caught" Frank hissed as he walked behind Lily. Miriam and Alice was the vanguard which Frank had said was the best place for Miriam, "Let her get caught first" Frank had said in a tone that said he was totally serious. Lily had the urge to hell him that in most Muggle movies the person at the back of the group was usually the first to be taken, but she didn't have the nerve to go up against Frank's bitter mood so she merely quickened her steps making a distinct gap between herself and the now slacking Frank.

The group moved through the corridors very slowly checking every direction before they moved and searching out the best possible hiding places in their chosen direction, Lily half wished that they still had McGonagall's map to guide them.

"I wish I knew a good Disillusionment Charm" Frank said from the rear of the group,

"Yeah," Miriam agreed, the first years had learned about Disillusion charms that day in charms, they had learned that they existed and that they wouldn't get to learn anymore about them until their final year.

"Or an invisibility cloak would be useful" Miriam continued.

"My farther has an invisibility cloak" Alice said absently as the first years skirted the trophy room which peeves was now know to frequent at night, they passed their dark arts class room, and headed down the corridor towards the teachers staff room which would then lead them to their destination.

"We'll get caught" Frank told the girls again as he nervously eyed the now unusually quite gargoyles that flagged the entrance of the teachers lounge,

"Shusssh!" all three girls hissed at Frank as Lily pulled him away form the door and they all continued to proceed down the hall

"If you keep talking you will get us caught!" Miriam hissed as she and Frank exchanged deathly looks,

"Just be grateful she didn't bring Mac" Lily heard Alice whisper to Frank, Lily didn't turn to look at Franks expression but she knew it would have been priceless, Miriam's pet hated all males no matter how old they were, he only tolerated Thaddeus and Jedidiah because they were Miriam's brothers and so posed no fret to his mistress. After another fifteen minutes of stalking the halls Lily breathed a sigh of relief as the huge solid oak library doors loomed into view.

Cautiously they approached the huge doors and pushed, it took all of their strength to push one of the vast doors open enough for them to squeeze inside, Lily had begun to wonder how the infirm looking vulture like librarian was able to open the doors each day, that was until Lily remembered that Pince probably had a spell to do it.

The four friends headed towards the restricted section avoiding a small party of ghost that were whiling in the corner of the charm sections near the books on silencing charms. Finally they reached the restricted section and paused at the rope divide, a small sign hung from the rope stating: -

_No admittance without permission_

"Well?" Miriam said as she looked at her friends "Are we doing this or not?"

"We're doing it" Lily said hoping that she spoke for the others, but yet no one moved,

"Oh this is useless!" Frank said getting annoyed, "Come on!" and with that he ducked under the rope and standing up on the other side of the border he lifted the rope as far as it would go, "Well ladies it was your idea!" Taking the hint Miriam ducked under the raised rope and standing on the other side she turned and waited for Lily and Alice. Lily followed Miriam and then came Alice,

"That's it" Frank said dramatically as he lowered the rope "there's no turning back now!"

"We should split up" Miriam said ignoring Frank

"NO!" both Lily and Alice protested in unison

"But we'll have a better chance of finding something if we-" Miriam began but she stopped as she saw the determined expressions on her friends faces

"We stay together" Lily reiterated she didn't want to be wondering around this eerie looking restriction section on her own, especially as she didn't know very many spells that would help her if she got into any difficulties, Lily knew that the safest place was anywhere where Miriam was.

"Fine" Miriam said as she pulled her wand out of her robes and whispered "Lumos", Lily was amazed to see the point spark into life like a sparkler and cast a bright and vivid green light over the friends,

"That's brilliant" Lily said as Alice linked arms with her and Miriam as the three girls led the way into the darkness, Miriam holding her wand above their heads,

The friends spent a good half hour looking around at all the different books on the shelves, Miriam and Frank warned Lily and Alice not to touch any books that looked 'suspect', Lily at first hadn't know what they had meant but after finding several large volumes tired up in chains and several more covered in blood stains Lily was beginning to understand what they had meant.

"Right" Miriam said as she headed back to the study table that the friends had decided to used as their base "I think I've got all the books I need let's go" The friends bagged the books that Miriam had wanted and they quickly made their way back to Gryffindor common room.

"I don't see why that place is restricted" Frank said idly as he swung back on his chair as the four friends sat around the study tables in their common room,

"Does this answer your question?" Alice said holding up the book she had been flicking through,

"Holy Merlin!!!" Frank exclaimed as he overbalanced and fell to the ground with a crunch. Lily didn't even what to look at the pictures, the books she had flicked through had proven too much for her, most of the diseases and their described symptoms was enough for lily to be thankful that she wasn't a pure blood or that she was too young to understand most of what was said, and both she and Frank was now seriously considering writing to the publisher of _'Misuse and mismanagement: The abuse of love potions and livestock'_ and demanding that an age certification was printed on the book. Lily also marvelled at how nothing in the books seemed to flex Alice or Miriam, but in truth nothing much shocked Miriam and so it wasn't that much of a surprise, although Alice was. The four friends sat for what seemed an age while Miriam read and flicked through different books, at almost 3 am Lily was about to call it all a night when,

"No, I don't believe this?" Miriam said her head deep inside a large leather book with Blue bindings and no visible title, "I-I think that Remus is a Werewolf!" she stammered her eyes widening,

"A what?" Lily asked as she stifled a yawn not fully understanding what Miriam had said "I thought they existed only in faire stories?"

"You mean along with wizards and witches?" Frank said sarcastically

"Fair point" Lily conceded

"HE'S A WEREWOLF!!!" Miriam said even louder

"For Merlin's sake lower your voice!" Frank said savagely "Do you want to wake up the entire house?"

"I knew Dumbledore was cracked but allowing a – a" Miriam said as she looked around the empty common room and lowered her voce "A werewolf into the school, what was he thinking of?!?!"

"He can't be that bad if the headmaster let him in" Alice said reassuringly "I mean-"

"Can't be that bad!!!" Miriam shot again cutting Alice off before she lowed her voice "A werewolf wiped out an entire village in Transylvanian a few years back and before that, one stalked a little girl through the woods to her grandmothers house and killed them both before a wood cutter killed it!!!" Lily blenched at Miriam's words; surely Dumbledore wouldn't be willing to put the entire school at risk, but Lily was glad when Frank decided to speak,

"This Remus we're talking about here" Frank said angrily "You remember him don't you? My room mate, our friend, the boy who saved Mac, The kid that wouldn't hurt anyone!"

"But he's got Lycanthropy!" Miriam protested "He shouldn't be allowed in the school, section 6 paragraph F of the wizarding ethics and conducts charter classifies werewolf's as none human, he shouldn't be here! And I should know, it was one of my ancestors that wrote that charter!!!" Lily could have strangled Miriam at that moment, over the past few months Lily had grown to love Miriam as the sister that she should have had, she was kind, caring and there was always fun when Miriam was a round, but now Lily couldn't believe how prejudice Miriam was being, she was acting exactly like the idiot's that would change direction when they saw Miriam walking down the corridor after the release of the Prophet article.

"After all those things you've said about everyone being equal no matter what their blood says, why are you being so bigotry about this?" Lily asked her voice sounding more angry then she had really meant it to "It's not like he asked for it you know, not like he put his arm in that things mouth and told it to bite him!"

"I'm not prejudice!" Miriam said almost automatically looking a little stunned,

"Poor Remus what he must be going through?" Alice said sympathetically as she drew everyone's attention away from the argument that was about to explode between the friends.

"Maybe we should call it night" Frank said as he shot a look at Miriam, obviously some people are never going to change their minds so -"

"What was that?" Alice asked as a loud bang signalled that someone was outside the Fat ladies portrait hole

"I don't know but I don't think we should hang around" Frank had never spoken a more truer word as at that moment the fat ladies portrait swung open,

"Run!" Miriam hissed as she grabbed hold of the book she had been reading and waved her wand extinguishing the candles on the table as she Alice and Lily ran towards their dormitory stairs and Frank ran towards his, Lily's last look of the common room was of Fat ladies portrait swinging wide open but she couldn't see anyone entering the common room.

"That was odd?" Lily said as she followed Miriam and Alice into their dorm and a loud thud emanated from the common room, Miriam ushered the girls inside their dormitory and sealed the door with the everlasting shield charm, Dymphna and Amy stirred slightly in their sleep but didn't wake.


	27. Where there's smoke

**Chapter 27: -** Where there's smoke...

Lily wasn't sleeping, she couldn't, she lay in her bed eyes wide awake replaying over and over again what Miriam had discovered that night. The thought that someone that Lily knew was a werewolf was very disturbing, despite all the strange and wonderful things that she had discovered and learned over the past few months she still couldn't believe that Werewolves were real or that Remus John Lupin was one!!! This thought was very unsettling for Lily mainly because besides Frank, Remus was one of the very few Gryffindor boys that Lily actually liked.

Lily coughed loudly, she had to sleep and she knew she had too, she was even beginning to imagine things, her eyes were getting misty through lack of sleep and she was even imagining that in the dead silence of the room that the small pot bellied stove in the corner was raging like an inferno. Coughing again Lily sighed loudly as she rubbed her eyes, she could hear MacMikelmouse, Miriam's pet Kneazle, whining. The small kitten had been whining for the past twenty minuets and he was now starting to get on Lily's nerves.

This and the fact that she was beginning to worry about her mixed and very confusing feelings about Remus' situation, was making Lily feel like she actually hated Miriam.

Lily had always thought that Remus was a very nice, friendly and intelligent boy who had been nothing but friendly to Lily since their first day at Hogwarts. But because of the way that Miriam had reacted to their recent discovery, Lily knew that Remus' problem was a very serious one. Miriam had made her feelings on Remus and his werewolf condition very clear that night, Miriam was strictly against the fact that Dumbledore had allowed Remus to attend Hogwarts, Miriam believed that the headmaster was putting the other students into a lot of danger.

Lily herself didn't know exactly what to believe, in the short period of time that Lily had known Miriam Lily had grown to love Miriam like the sister that she had always wanted to have, but Lily also knew that Remus was a good person despite his problems. Also Lily couldn't understand why Miriam was so set against Remus, she out all the students in the school should be able to understand what it was like to have a problem that limited you and made you different form everyone else!

Lily coughed again as she chastised herself, at this moment she was feeling a lot of anger and hatred towards Miriam, Lily couldn't understand how the girl that she classed as her best friend at Hogwarts was being so bigotry!

"No" Lily mumbled to herself as she rolled one to her side coughing once more as her chest now began to hurt, she tried to put all the consuming thoughts of Remus and Miriam out of her mind,

'_It's stupid!' _Lily told herself as she rolled back onto her back _'Stupid'_ she thought to lose yet more sleep! At home Lily was never weak or indecisive, and even at her primary school she had been the clever and popular one in her class, at Hogwarts she wasn't anything besides that redhead Muggle from Gryffindor. Lily felt even worse now but mostly for herself. Sighing heavily Lily rolled onto her other side as she closed her eyes once again she tried to force herself to fall asleep. Moments later Lily was awoken by a blood curdling scream,

"WHAT WAS THAT!?!?" Lily heard Dymphna exclaim at the same time as she heard Miriam making a strange noise from her bed. The wildest scenario's suddenly flooded through Lily's mind scenes of blood crazed wolves, half man half beast that she had seen in late night horror movies her father had always told her not to watch. Frantically Lily and the rest of her dorm mates clambered out of their beds to investigate, Lily raced to Miriam's bed and threw back the hangings fully expecting to see a full grown werewolf tearing Miriam's throat out, instead she saw only Miriam in her nightdress shushing MacMikelmouse to be quiet,

"It's your stupid cat!" Lily said angrily to Miriam more in relief then anything else as Mac hollered the same shrieking cry again as he nudged Miriam's face frantically,

"What's wrong with him?" Alice asked sleepily as she rubbed her eyes, "is he ok?"

"Who cares?" Lily heard herself saying before she could stop herself,

"I don't know!" Miriam said choosing to ignore Lily's comment as she climbed out of bed and Mac let out another cry as he rushed towards the dormitory door and began scratching at it frantically

"What ever it is he's pretty insistent about?" Miriam said her voice full of alarm "He wouldn't stop nudging me till I woke up!"

"Do you think he's trying to tell us something?" Dymphna asked a look of concern spreading across her face, as both Lily and Amy scoffed,

"He's isn't Lassie! He's just a cat!" Lily said smiling as she rubbed her misty eyes trying to clear them

"Who's Lassie?" Alice asked as she sat down on her bed

"Nothing" Amy replied sniggering as she and Lily sheared a mischievous smile, being the only two Muggle born in the dormitory did sometimes prove to be very fun.

"I've never seen him like this?" Miriam said still ignoring the girls her voice betrayed her concern for her pet as she strode towards Mac

"He's cracked that's what!" Amy said callously as she climbed back into bed. The girls were never this short tempered with other usually but seeing as Lily, Alice and Miriam had only returned back to their dorm half an hour ago and Lily's bedside clock now read 4:30 the girls ill feelings at being woken up for no good reason was fully understandable, Dymphna and Amy was also slightly annoyed due to the fact that they had not been invited on Lily, Alice, Miriam and Frank's midnight walkabout to the library that night which had been the reason that the three other girls had gone to bed so late.

"No," Miriam said getting frustrated "I'm telling you there's something wrong!"

"Yeah with your pet!!!" Lily sneered "Now shut him up so we all can get some sleep! We've still got classes to go to tomorrow!" Lily couldn't believe that she was being so mean to Miriam, but some how it made Lily feel slightly better and she told herself that because of how Miriam had reacted to finding out about Remus that she deserved it.

"Something is seriously wrong I'm telling you!" Miriam said as she knelt down next to her pet who cried and looked up expectantly at his mistress as if saying _"About time you came now are you going to do something?!?!"_

"What are you dong?" Lily asked as she watched Miriam who instead of picking Mac up lay flat on the floor and sniffed at the crack below the door

"I think I smell smoke?!?!" Miriam said in alarm pulling herself up as she forcibly dragged Mac away from the door and retired back towards the nearest bed, Lily could have sworn that the little kittens face showed a sign of relief as the girls finally understood why the small animal had tried to wake his mistress and her room mates.

"WHAT!?!?!" Dymphna called as she Lily, Amy and Alice all hurried to the door and knelt down,

"I don't smell anything?" Amy said but Lily could and now she understood why she kept thinking that her eyes had been blurry and misty

"What are you doing?" Lily yelled as Amy reached for the bolt on the door

"Opening it to have a look" Amy replied as though it was the most natural thing in the world

"And what if there _is_ a fire on the other side?" Lily said pulling Amy's hand away "There would be nothing to stop it getting in here! And then what would we do?!?!"

"Well what do we do then?" Amy asked her voice quivering with fear. At this every eye including Mac's and Lily's all turned to look at Miriam expectantly as though she would be able to tell them all what they should do. In most cases Miriam was always the one that came up with the ideas and plans, Miriam was the best out of all the first years at magic, charms and potions and was the one that could solve every problem no matter how big or small, but at this moment Miriam just stared wide eyed and open mouthed at the solid dormitory door.

"What?!?!" Miriam said as she hugged Mac closely across her chest, "I don't know what to do?"

"You have to!" Amy and Dymphna practically begged

"W-Well I guess we should check it out first?" Miriam suggested nervously as she eyed the door bolt suspiciously, "To-To make sure that it is actually safe and that there's nothing right outside the door?" Putting her feelings aside Lily nodded it was the best idea that they had, and so she and the other three girls in the dorm gave Miriam the go ahead, Lily wasn't exactly sure how Miriam was going to accomplish this but Lily was thankful that it was Amy that now voiced her concerns,

"But how? We can't open the door just in case...well you know?!?!", Lily saw Miriam grin she dropped Mac onto her bed were he proceeded to jump down and follow Miriam close by her ankles as the Miriam headed towards her bedside table pulling open the top drew and retrieving her wand.

Lily had always been slightly jealous of Miriam's wand, like everything else that Miriam owned it too was unique and very expensive, but unlike the rest of Miriam's belongings Miriam's wand had once belonged to her late grandmother. The wand was made out of jet and was as black as its new owner's hair, its core was solid gold and was always ice cold to the touch, Miriam's wand had obviously not been made by the same creator as every other wand at the school. Now smiling Miriam strode back to the dormitory door with Mac quickly following her

"Penetrate!!!" Miriam yelled as she pointed her wand at the door Lily and Amy both gasped as a large hole appeared in the centre of the solid wooden door,

"What are you doing?" Amy cried "You'll let all the smoke inside!!!"

"Relax" Dymphna said her voice filled with awe as she stared at the hole in the centre of the door "It isn't actually a hole she's just made part of the door transparent"

"That's amazing Mi" Alice said proudly "That's third year magic!"

"How did you learn that?" Amy asked her fear overcome by her wonder at her room mates magical prowess, unlike most witches or wizards who used second hand wands Miriam's magical skills never seemed to be hindered by the fact that she used a wand that hadn't been intended solely for herself.

"Can we please concentrate on the problem at hand?" Lily urged bring her friends attention back to the current situation and the possibility that the stairwell could be filed with flames. All the girls edged towards the door peering through the now transparent hole in its centre, by twisting her wand between her figures Miriam was able to increase the size of the hole, but in every direction that Miriam turn her wand all the girls could see was thick black smoke.

"Why hasn't it got in here by now?" Dymphna asked but even Lily knew the answer to that,

"The everlasting seal charm" Lily replied "I'm assuming that it's keeping the smoke at bay as well as making sure no unwanted visitors surprise us during the night" Dymphna nodded her understanding as Miriam placed her hand on the huge bolt,

"I think we should risk it?" she said as she released her transparent spell, "We obviously aren't going to be able to find anything out by waiting in here and what about Hug-and-Kiss and the older girls below us?" Lily and the others knew exactly what Miriam was thinking, no matter how thick the smoke was in front of the first years door it was bound to be twice as thick for the older fifth, sixth and final years who's dormitories where directly below them.

"And none of them have seals on their doors" Alice said needlessly reminding them all of the dangers that the older girls were now unknowingly facing in their sleeps.

Miriam looked towards the others for conformation. Reluctantly Lily and the others nodded, It was useless trying to stop Miriam when her mind was made up and she had decided to do something, and so before her four dorm mates had even raised their heads from their acceptant nods Miriam had already removed the door's sealing charm and was now drawing back the heavy bolt with a loud clunk. Mac Meowed loudly as his mistress moved her hand towards the door handle,

"Stay here then!" Miriam said irritably to the small kitten as Lily shook her head, Miriam always talked to the little Kneazle as though it was a person,

'_maybe'_ Lily thought _'Miriam had lost too much blood when she had been injured?'_ Lily made a mental note that she should ask Madam Pomfrey about it when she next saw the nurse, if she next saw the nurse! At the moment Miriam pulled the dormitory door wide the thick black smoke that had been kept out of the room by the sealing charm rushed into the room,

"Stay back" Miriam warned the others as she coughed loudly and the little Kneazle sneezed as he stood by his mistresses' ankles refusing to move from her side

"Keep well back!" Lily choked to Alice, Dymphna and Amy as her lungs filled with the smoke. Alice, Dymphna and Amy quickly obey as they hurried to the back of the dormitory as Alice flung the small window wide as Lily and Miriam stepped out onto their dormitories large stone doorstep as Mac quickly followed Miriam as though he was attached to her ankles. The entire stairwell was thick with smoke Lily could barely see her hand in front of her face as both girls and the small Kneazle coughed again,

"I can't see a thing!!!" Lily said squinting has she tried to see what was causing the smoke, she hoped that it was some sort of a practical joke that was being played on them by Sirius and James but that hope swiftly left Lily as Miriam choked out a short incantation pointing her wand dead ahead as it immediately issued a short blast of air forcing the thick smoke away from the two girls and Mac.

"Merlin help us!" Lily heard Miriam gasp, Lily didn't have to turn to look at Miriam to know what her expression was like, both girls faces had paled instantly with shock, their jaws had dropped and their eyes were wide in both disbelief and fear. In the few seconds that the thick smoke had cleared its source was immediately apparent, Lily prayed that it was still some sort of sick joke but her gut was telling her that it wasn't. The common room was a roaring inferno, or at least the portion of the common room nearest the entrance to the girls dormitories that was!

"Quickly get back inside!" Lily yelled as she tried to grab hold of Miriam's arm to pull her back inside the dormitory but Miriam had other ideas,

"We've got help the others!" Miriam called as she jumped off the doorstep and was quickly engulfed by the smoke as ran down the stone stairs and towards the fire still closely followed by Mac.

"MI!!!!" Lily called frantically as she too chased after Miriam, "This is insane Mi!"

"Lily we have to help them don't you understand that?!?!" Miriam called over her shoulder as Lily finally caught up with her

"But it's too dangerous!!!" Miriam called as she heard the fire roaring louder and louder as the two girls moved closer to the fire "We could head back up to our dormitory and the-"

"And then what Lily?!" Miriam demanded as she pulled Lily closer to the safer side of the stairs as they still continued to move towards the lower level dormitories "We don't have time to wait for someone else to help!" Lily knew that Miriam was right, she felt sickened by the fact that in the face of danger her instincts had switched automatically to self-preservation mode whilst Miriam's instincts had immediately told her to swallow her fear and to do what had needed to be done. Despite the smoke the two girls quickly made their way towards the sixth formers dorms as these were the most in danger of being engulfed by the flames. Lily gasped as another blast of air from Miriam's wand revealed that the fire was already creeping closer to the stone dormitory stairs.

"We should be ok Right?" Miriam asked her voice betraying her concern "Fire doesn't burn on stone right?" Lily nodded that she thought that this was true or at least she hoped it was,

"I think it's the smoke that's the most to worry about!" Lily choked, as hot ash began to burn the back of her throat and nostrils, the fire was really close to the sixth formers doorway that Lily could even feel the heat of the flames on her face. Using another charm Miriam repelled the flames that were licking at the foot of the dormitory stairs so that both girls and Mac could enter the sixth formers dorm unharmed. Lily pushed the heavy oak door open and she, Miriam and Mac rushed into the room. The smoke was thicker in the small dorm then it was in the stairwell and Lily was surprised that none of the girls had woken up already, but then again Lily reflected, the first years wouldn't have been alerted to the dangers if it hadn't been for MacMikelmouse.

"WAKE UP!!!" Lily tried to yell but her voiced choked in her throat as the thick smoke, began to smoother her and she found that the only thing she could do was to gag and choke, she couldn't even breathe properly! Miriam once again cast the charm emitting another blast of air from her wand tip, this one was stronger then the rest and managed to clear some of the smoke that made the room so smothering. Breathing more easily now Lily tried to wake the nearest girl to the door but she couldn't,

"Hug-and-Kiss isn't breathing!" Miriam called in alarm as she knelt next the bed opposite Lily that contained the first years most heated prefect,

"Check her pulse!" Lily cried as she rushed towards Amanda's bed her own heart dropping at the thought that they may have been too late!

"Her what?" Miriam yelled as Lily pushed her aside and place two of her fingers on Amanda's neck

"It's weak but it's there!" Lily declared with relief "It's this smoke! It's too thick it's stopping them from breathing properly" Lily said desperately as she tried her best to help Amanda, "I think she must be unconscious with something like smoke inhalation!"

"What?" Miriam asked looked bewildered

"It's clogging up her lungs stopping her breathing" Lily called

"Stand back!" Miriam ordered as she pointed her wand at Amanda and she yelled "Scourgify!"

"W-What's g-g-going on?!" yelled a very shocked Amanda as she coughed and spluttered and sat up right in bed, Lily breathed easily as Amanda yelled at Miriam and grabbed her saviour by her wand wrist and gave Miriam the worst tongue thrashing Lily had ever heard, as Miriam tried in vain to plead the gravity of what she had done and Lily quickly managed to rouse the remaining members of Amanda's dorm. After almost a minute of angry shouts from Amanda Hugh-Genghis shewas finally willing to listen to reason, It had been almost five minutes since Lily had first been woken by Mac's blood curdling scream and after only a few seconds more the two first years and five sixth formers were now all ready to leave the dorm.

Despite the fact that Lily and Miriam had risked their own lives and health to rescue the sixth formers Amanda, as senior prefect in the group, had now taken charge. The fire outside the sixth years dorm was raging harder then ever before, it now took all of the sixth formers repellent charms to keep the flames at bay as they girls quickly passed. Miriam even scooped Mac up and held the small kitten as far from the flames as possible as she passed, the reason for this was that now the heat from the flames had become so intense that they had started to raise the temperature of the stone steps. Lily winced with every step as she could feel her feet blistering as she hurried passed the flames that seemed to have crept further up the dormitory stairwell, as the girls now quickly hurried to rouse the reaming of the years.

"Head up to the top dorm!" Lily called as the fifth and final years hurried to investigate the noise that the girls were now creating,

"What's going on?!" girls demanded as more and more girls emerged from their dorms and Amanda tried to urge them all to remain in their own dorms,

"NO!!!" Miriam raged grabbing hold of Amanda, "Lily's right we all have to stay together in one place and as far from the fire as possible!" as if to emphasise Miriam's point and with precision timing, as though it was planned (which it obviously wasn't). Alice, Dymphna and Amy emerged from the first years dorm and as the smoke cleared as more and more students used the charm Miriam had used to clear the smoke more of the terror that was befalling the girls became apparent, and as Dymphna stepped out onto the doorstep she screamed,


	28. …There’s fire

**Chapter 28: - **...There's fire

"WE'RE TRAPED! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!" Dymphna screamed

"BE QUIET!" Amanda yelled at Dymphna who had already burst into tears at the thought that she was trapped in a smoke and flame filled inferno.

"No body panic!" Amanda raged as more and more girls screamed and wailed about the futility of their lives

"Everyone make for the top dorm!" Miriam and Lily both yelled above the din, surprisingly and much to Amanda's fury all the girls obeyed.

"Are you ok?" Alice asked Lily as she, Amy and Dymphna raced up the stairs beside side her. Miriam and Mac had now been lost from Lily's view in the ensuing throng of bodies that jostled the first years up the stone steps towards the fourth year's dormitory at the very top of the spiral stairwell.

"Where's Miriam?" Lily asked to no one in particular as she frantically looked around the masses of older girls trying to locate her,

"I don't see her!" Alice called as she pushed Lily up the stairs and thrust Lily's wand into her hand,

"But she was right next to me!" Lily said as she slipped her wand into the waist band of the pyjama bottoms

"She's probably already there!" Amy yelled as both she and Dymphna grabbed hold of Lily's wrists and pulled her towards the fourth year's dormitory.

"Everyone head to the top dorm!" Lily could hear Amanda now yelling as she adopted the idea as though it was her own. But Lily didn't care what she did care about was the fact that she couldn't see Miriam anywhere, Lily knew Miriam's character very well even through the girls had only been friends for a few months, but Miriam wouldn't have left her friends sides unless something serious had happened, especially not in a situation like this.

"Is everyone here?" Amanda asked. Having been the first person to reach the safety of the fourth year's dorm Amanda was waiting besides the dormitory door poised to close it.

"Mi isn't here!" Lily voiced but Amanda ignored her,

"Are we all here? Are we all safe?" Lily stood in a sea of nods as the older girls agreed that everyone was now safe

"MIRIAM ISN'T HERE!!!" Alice raged. It was the first time that Lily had heard Alice raise her voice to anyone who wasn't her brother, usually Alice was the kind and caring type but now, Alice was quite scary Lily thought with a hint of glee.

"Look Potter, Artemis had plenty of time to get here and we have to block this door before we all choke!" some of the older girls agreed and Lily was sickened to hear one of them mumble that they'd all be doing the Artemis family a favour by getting rid of the diseased blood.

"IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR MI YOU'D ALL HAVE BEEN DEAD BY NOW!" Alice raged even more as she strode towards Amanda her hands on her hips and her lips narrowed and Lily smiled wickedly as Amanda blanched from Alice's rage,

"WE OWE HER OUR LIVES!" Alice continued "SO I THINK THAT GIVING HER A FEW EXTRA SECONDS TO GET HERE WOULD BE AN EASY TRADE OFF!" Some of the older girls moaned in disagreement, they obviously hadn't forgotten how Gryffindor had lost so many house points in the first week of term, Lily felt even more sick that they would be willing to let someone perish for some stupid house points.

"I'm going to look for her!" Lily announced, as she tried to resist thinking about why Miriam may not have arrived at the dormitory,

"NO!" Amanda yelled "No one is going to look for anyone!" and with that Amanda preceded to close the solid dormitory door.

"NO!!!" Lily, Alice, Dymphna and Amy all yelled as each girl rushed forwards pulling their wands out and aiming them at Amanda,

'_The world was turning mad!'_ Lily thought as she tried to hold her shaking wand hand still amongst the screams and gasps from the older year girls who had quickly pressed themselves against the walls, obviously none of them had had the forethought that Alice had had of bringing their wands with them. What shocked Lily the most was her own boldness she had never drawn her wand against anyone before not even Bellatrix Black who some times deserved a good hexing, but Lily knew that this was different, if Amanda closed the door then Miriam's fate would be sealed. Looking from Alice, Amy and Dymphna Lily knew that one way or another that the fourth year dormitory door would remain open.

"I'm going to look for her!" Lily said to her fellow first years "I'll be back as quick as I can" Lily had barely registered her friends nods when suddenly the half closed door burst open, revealing Miriam covered head to foot in soot and under her now blackened face her skin looked very pale.

"I can't find Mac!" Miriam exclaimed "is he here?"

"Who's Mac?" Amanda asked trying to act concerned but as soon as Miriam revealed that Mac was her pet Amanda's usual disgruntled demeanour about everything that concerned the first years was now back, "Forget about your stupid cat you shouldn't have let go of him!" But this remake sprang a torrent of screams and gasps from the other girls who had all left their own pets in their smoke filled dorms, now every student in the room wanted to search for their pets.

"No one is going anywhere!" Amanda raged "Their just animals you can get new ones!" this made the other girls cry out in anger and Lily was sure that if any of the older girls had brought their wands then it would just be the first years who would have their wands drawn and aimed at Amanda,

"Don't worry!" Miriam coughed as she stepped in front of Amanda blocking her from the angry glares of the older girls "I collect them all together, I've put them in the dorm below us they'll be fine. I've cleared the room of smoke and used the everlasting seal charm on the door so that no more smoke will get into the room, that's why I was the last to get back here, they'll be perfectly safe" The older girls breathed easy, and Amanda finally closed the door while Alice sealed it using the everlasting seal charm. Miriam, Lily and Alice sank into the nearest bed as Amanda began to direct the other girls in opening the dormitories windows and instructed others use the bed sheets to block any other cracks in the walls and door frame.

Lily watched Miriam in silence as the noise of the other girls faded into the background.

"I can't believe I left him!" Miriam mumbled as she unsuccessfully fought back the tears, as she pulled her keens into her chest clutching them tightly, "I only put him down for a second so that I could catch Drusilla's' Puffskein!!!"

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Mi" Alice said reassuringly as she put her arms around Miriam "He's as resilient as his owner" Alice said laughing slightly as she hugged Miriam closer. Lily said nothing; she knew that Miriam and Alice didn't believe a word of what Alice had just said but what else could be said? The truth? That Mac had most likely suffocated by now or worse that the little Kneazle had been caught in the blaze?

Lily couldn't think about this horror let alone to have it cross Miriam's mind even if Miriam may have already thought it.

Miriam nuzzled her knees as she tried to dry her eyes the result made both Lily and Alice laugh as Miriam had made a black smug on the hem of her already blackened white night dress and now looked as though she had two black eyes just like a panda Lily thought. The three friends sat silently on the bed their arms around each other as Dymphna and Amy help in Amanda's plans for fortifying of the room. Lily knew that it must have been hard for Miriam to have came to the dorm without Mac, Miriam loved her pet more then her own life even more then Quidditch and that, Lily thought was saying something.

Over ten minutes had passed and all the girls in the room were now sat, stood or perched on the floor or on any piece of furniture that they could find. The fourth years dorm was only slightly larger then the other dorms and like the other dorms this room was only meant to hold a maximum of five girls and not thirty five as it was doing now.

"We have to get out" Lily could hear several girls whining,

"We have to try to get some help" Others said,

"The teachers will help us" other girls said and others even suggested that they should tackle the problem themselves. But all of these suggestions were shot down and discarded; there was no where for all of the girls to go, and no one that they could alert from inside the dorm. The teachers never came into the common rooms and even for some strange reason that McGonagall did, she, like the Gryffindor boys would still be asleep and would not be awake for hours. This also presented other problems, what if the boys were in the same predicament as the girls?

The girls couldn't even help themselves as none of them knew any strong enough water charms that could dowse a full raging blaze and so the girls had no hope of helping the boys if they were in trouble as well.

"You're all acting as though it's all over!!!" Miriam called as she stood up from the bed drawing the attention of the entire room

"Well it is" fifth year Natalie Carr said "We can't go fetch any help can we? Unless you can fly!" at this some of the other girls laughed

"Your right I can't fly but a broom can!" Miriam said

"It's a good idea Mi" fourth year Karen Bates said "but none of us fourth year girls are allowed to join the Quidditch team"

"Fine but we have to do something!" Lily said in agreement with Miriam,

"Like what?" Amanda sneered "Climb on the roof and call for help?!"

"Why not?" Miriam said sounding serious as some of the older girls laughed

"To start off with we can't fit through the window!" Lauren Snicker, Amanda's best friend said not even attempting to hide her grin

"And secondly no one's crazy enough to climb out off the window anyway!" Amanda said. Lily cursed Amanda and Lauren for their jibs at Miriam, and lily knew that Miriam would have to make a come back,

"You might not be able to fit through the window but I'm not as fat as you two!" Miriam shot back as Amanda and Lauren gasped in outrage and Karen laughed openly "And as for the crazy part" Miriam continued "A family can't inbreed for centuries and not expect some sort insanity" at this most of the other girls in the room laughed,

"Your not going through that window Artemis!" Amanda raged

"Stop me then!" Miriam said simply as she made her way towards the nearest window as best as she could in the overly crowed room, Amanda made no attempted to stop Miriam as she climbed onto the small window seat, Hanging onto the inside of the window frame Miriam swung her legs onto the outside lintel

"Wait!" Lily suddenly found herself calling before she could stop herself "I'll come with you!" With wishes of good luck form Alice, Dymphna, Amy and a few other girls Lily followed Miriam's lead as she too managed to force herself through the ridiculously small window.

"You didn't have to come" Miriam said as she helped lily onto the even smaller ledge that ran around the base of the window and across the entire tower,

"I know but well...I couldn't leave you to go on your own" Lily said not even feeling anxious even though she thought that she might of.

"Thanks" Miriam said softly as the two girls clutched onto the even narrower ledge above them as they began to shuffle their way around the tower,

"Doesn't this scare you?" Lily asked as she tried to concentrated on anywhere but down at her feet,

"Not particularly I'm used to heights when I play Quidditch at home, the trick is just not to look down!"

'_Great!' _Lily thought why did Miriam had do go and say that?! Now that Miriam had told Lily not to look down she so desperately wanted to! Concentrating even harder on the wall in front of her lily shuffled along the ledge.

"S-So w-what's the plan?" Lily asked not really wanting to know the idiotic mess that she had now got herself into.

"We head to the boys top dorm it's the closest window to us, if their in the same predicament as the girls then we steal Edgar Bones' broom he's in the Quidditch team so he'll definitely have at least one broom in his room then we fly it down to get some help"

"Great!" Lily mumbled in amazement at how fast Miriam had come up with her plan. Lily and Miriam painfully made their way across the ledge, Lily's fingers were stinging and hurting as she grabbed onto the lintel above her head and her bare feet were still in pain from the blisters that she had received from the red hot stone steps. Why she had said she'd follow Miriam, Lily didn't know she just knew that if she managed to get out of this mess alive, today would be one day that she wasn't going to be writing home to her parents about. The girls finally reached the boys dorm window and typical to Lily's luck it was closed and locked and even though Miriam and Lily both knocked and banged as loud as they could no light was lit and no one came to the girls rescue,

"Maybe they weren't as lucky?" Lily said tearfully as she thought of Frank and Remus as she and Miriam pressed their faces against the cold frame as they peered into the dark dormitory room beyond,

"Either way" Miriam said callously "We're going in this way!" How? Lily was about to ask but she knew that this would have been stupid, pulling her wand out of her night dress Miriam used a charm to make the catch on the other side of the window rise and she pushed it open and climbed inside. Lily made to follow but her foot stepped onto a weakened stone and as it gave way under her feet lily lost her grip and she fell.

Lily didn't understand what had just happened, one second she was on the narrow ledge, the next she was plummeting to her death and the next she was suspended in mid air! Opening her eyes Lily could see the ground ten storeys below her and her stomach churned, it churned even more when she realised that she was now moving again, but this time upwards!

"Are you okay?" Lily heard Miriam's voice call, Lily thanked her lucky stars that Miriam's parents had insisted that Miriam and her brothers received privet schooling when they where at home and the it was higher then was usual topics aimed at their age groups, which meant that unlike the rest of the first years Miriam already knew how to cast the levitation spell perfectly.

Miriam helped Lily into the fourth year boys' dorm and without even checking on the boys in the room the two girls grabbed the broom that was resting on Edgar's trunk.

Miriam eased the broom out of the window and commanded it to hover. The Broom happily hovered below the window as Miriam climbed back out and then turned to help Lily climb on it behind her. Lily didn't like flying on brooms much, she dreaded the weekly flying lesions that the first years had each week, but Miriam unlike Lily loved flying it was what she lived for.

"Hold on tight" Miriam said to lily and she immediately put the Brooms nose down and sent them into a dive, Lily clung onto Miriam tightly as the wind blew through her hair and whipping icy cold on her legs as Miriam whooped for joy as the girls hurtled towards the ground. Lily screamed as Miriam finally pulled the broom out of its dive inches from the ground.

"Merlin I've missed having my own broom!" Miriam said smiling "I hate those stupid structured lessons that Podmore runs don't you?" Lily didn't say anything as she hung onto Miriam even tighter as Miriam spun the broom around and around turning the two girls over and over,

"I love it!" Miriam whooped again,

"That's fine" Lily mumbled in Miriam's ear "But let's not do that again ok?" Miriam laughed as she sent the broom flying towards the huge oak entrance doors and cast spell towards them so that they swung open. Miriam turned the head of the broom towards the marble staircase and then whizzed up the stairs and into the corridors beyond.

"Mi you've got to be joking right!?!" Lily called in alarm as Miriam tore up the narrow corridors and sharp bends,

"It's quicker then walking!" Miriam called blissfully, as she kicked the broom hard around a hairpin bend of the twisting stairs that led towards Professor McGonagall's quarters. Lily and Miriam knocked and knocked on the door to their head of houses quarters door but to no avail,

"We need to head back to the common room!" Lily said as she and Miriam climbed onto the broom again and Miriam sent the broom hurtling through the corridors again.

Lily didn't know what use she or Miriam would be, if they couldn't find any of the teachers but she guessed that they'd have deal with that when they reached the common room. Miriam yelled the common room password as they flew up the stairs opposite the fat ladies portrait, the fat lady screamed in horror as she flung herself open as Miriam refused to slow the pace of the broom,

"Well I never!" the fat lady huffed as the two girls hurtled into the common room.

"Merlin!" Miriam yelled as she suddenly pulled the head of the broom up grinding the two girls to a sudden and also for lily who was unaccustomed to riding brooms a painful stop.

"And what may I ask have you two been doing?" the voice of professor McGonagall said as she stood directly in front of the two girls, who had been inches away from being knocked to the ground if Miriam hadn't stopped when she had, Lily didn't quite understand what was going on as she looked around the common room, seeing all the Gryffindor students assembled in neat rows. Miriam and lily landed, both girls feeling utterly deflated and not knowing why as their head of house glared at them.

"As you both may or may not be aware" McGonagall sneered talking to both of the girls but looking directly at Miriam, "There has been a fire in this common room"

"We know we came to find you and-" Miriam started to say before she was shot down by a look from her head of house,

"Indeed I have heard" McGonagall said her lips narrowing "Miss Huge-Genghis has informed me all about what you have done Miss Artemis, Reckless endangerment of others lives" at this McGonagall's eyes shot towards lily before continuing back to Miriam "damage to school property, Theft of personally property," McGonagall said indicating the broom that Miriam was now holding in her hand "Unless I'm not aware of a change of rule that states that first years are now allowed to have brooms, if not then several cases for a disregard to school rules should be added to your record as well!"

"Record?" Miriam called looking shocked "but we-"

"Yes Miss Artemis your record-" McGonagall said ignoring Miriam

"Ha Minerva the dorms have been fully restored" called the soft voice of the headmaster as he emerged form the girls dormitory stairs,

"Thank you Albus" McGonagall said graciously before she lowered her voice and growled at the two girls in font of her "We shall continue this later Miss Artemis for now you will join your class mates" Miriam and Lily didn't need to be told twice as their head of house snatched the broom from Miriam as they both hurried towards the rest of the first years.

"As you are all well aware" Dumbledore said as he walked to the front of the groups of students "This incident could have been remarkably worse then a few burned tapestries, study tables, chairs and books that thankfully only resulted in the lose of your sleep." Dumbledore's words had set a warning bell ringing in lily's head as she quickly looked around the common room to see that the area of the common room that the fire had originated from was the area that Lily, Miriam, Frank and Alice had been sitting at that night to discover what was wrong with Remus.

Lily's stomach churned as she realised what must have happened, they, Lily, Miriam, Frank and Alice had left the common room in such a hurry thinking that someone was about to enter the common room through the portrait hole that in their hast they must have left the candles still burning which had some how ignited the old and dried parchment of the books that they had stolen form the restricted section of the library.

Dumbledore's talk to the house continued as Madam Pomfrey attended to the students giving them all a solution to clear any smoke or ash from their air ways, Lily would have normally laughed to see the steam rising from the other students ears if the situation hadn't been so grave. Finally Dumbledore's speech ended by telling the students to be more careful and that no candle should be left unattended in the future.

"Well!" the headmaster said smiling and opening his arms wide "Seeing as we are all up I shall ask the kitchens to prepare an early breakfast for us all!" The students cheered and Dumbledore lead them all down towards the great hall, all of them still dressed in the night clothes.

"Great" Lily said miserably as she, Miriam, Alice and Frank waited for the room to empty "We nearly end up killing our entire house!"

"No we didn't!" Miriam said

"Mi we brought the books here that helped to start the fire and we were the ones that left those candles lit!" Alice said

"We may have brought those books and left them on the table" Miriam said "But I put those candles out as we left" Lily and Alice turned to look at Frank for conformation,

"I-I don't remember" Frank said reluctantly "it happened so quickly"

"Miriam!" Called a voice as the four friends finally made it into the great hall and they abruptly fell silent,

"I need to give you this back!" the voice belonged to Remus Lupin as he hurried towards the group digging his hand into his dressing gown pocket and bringing out a ball of fluff "This little thing woke me about twenty minutes ago" Remus said proudly

"MAC!!!" Miriam cried as she raced and grabbed the fluff ball from Remus and the small stripped and spotted creature meowed pathetically as Miriam hugged him. The little kitten was in a right state his eyes, mouth and nostrils were caked in ash, his fur was dirty from the smoke and worst of all he even had patches of singed fur and the pads of his tiny feet were blistered and bleeding.

"You should be proud of him" Remus said "He saved us all, it was because of him that I was woken up" Remus indicated the long scratch on his cheek

"He woke the entire dorm up" Frank said proudly "it was us that really saved the entire house"

"So it had nothing to do with the fact that we woke Gideon Prewett who held back the fire with water charms until James and Sirius fetch the headmaster then?" Remus said smiling,

"Well maybe just a little" Frank concede "But we fetched MG"

"Yeah but it was Dumbledore that actually put the fire out though wasn't it"

"Thank you Remus" Miriam said as she pulled him close and kiss him on the cheek as Mac, despite his injuries protested at Miriam being too close to a member of the opposite sex,

"Do you think that Pomfrey could heal him?" Miriam asked them all as she released Remus, much to his displeasure,

"Hagrid's better equipped at looking after animals" Frank said eyeing Remus with what looked like jealousy

"Right I'll take him to Hagrid's" and before Miriam could even get permission from a teacher to leave the castle Miriam had already headed out into the cold castle grounds, just as the sun was beginning to rise and the sky was growing light gray,

"We should go with her!" Remus said making his way to the door

"I shouldn't mate" Frank said "That cat doesn't like any guy but Mi's brothers"

"Yes but-" Remus protested

"Hagrid's just a big friendly giant you know that" Alice said "Besides Miriam's more bothered about Mac's health then her prejudices"

"Prejudices?" Remus asked looking both nervous and bewildered, his cheeks still red from when he had blushed as Miriam kissed him

"Lets get some food" Lily said quickly trying to avoid the topic of Miriam and her prejudices, Lily hoped that the past few minutes had changed Miriam's mind about Remus and his monthly wolf condition.

That day the news of the Gryffindor's common room fire quickly spread throughout the school. Over night James, Sirius, Remus, Frank and Gideon Prewett became heroes as did Mac who Hagrid had taken exceptional care of, Miriam had thought so anyway and she was more then pleased to talk to the huge gamekeeper face to face. A distanced change lily thought to when Miriam had first met the huge man on the platform of Hogsmead station and had hide behind Lily to avoid him, but Hagrid had healed Mac's burns and now only the kittens fur had to grow back.

Prefect Gideon Prewett being the oldest of the Gryffindor girls saviours now attracted more female attentions then ever before and became the most talked about none Quidditch playing guy in the school he also became Hogwarts newest celebrity as the Daily Prophet, Witch weekly and even the Quibbler sent reporters out to the school to interview him.

And now every girl in the school wanted to date him, much to the annoyance of Dymphna who had liked Gideon since her first week at Hogwarts.

Gideon's new found fame wasn't much to his likening but as it was the most exciting thing that had happened all year at Hogwarts there was nothing that Gideon could do to stop it, his twin brother Fabian, although not identical and who was a prefect in Hufflepuff house was for once enjoying being mistaken for Gideon by his brothers new groupies. The news of the fire, the excitement of the articles and hot flushes experienced by the older girls as Gideon walked passed quickly helped the other students to forget about the Daily Prophet article that was printed about Miriam only a few days before. The only people that didn't seem to like the aftermath of the Gryffindor fire was Lily, Miriam, Miriam's older brother Jedidiah his best friend Ludo Bagman and Miriam's eldest brothers best friend Lucius Malfoy. The boys didn't like it as all the girls that would usually be hanging around them and cooing about them had now turned towards Gideon. Lily and Miriam didn't like it as McGonagall had finally decided upon the consequences of the 'Report' that she had mentioned to Miriam on the night of the fire.


End file.
